South Africa vs Sri Lanka 2016, 1st Test - 5 Talking Points
Sri Lanka's stoic resistance came to a grinding halt as Kyle Abbott struck two decisive blows early on Day 5, dismissing Mathews and de Silva leg before wicket. Inspite of both of them reviewing, the onfield decision stayed.
Chasing a record 488 for victory, some gritty batting from the openers and later Angelo Mathews had given them a slight chance of scaling the target, although the likes of Chandimal and Kusal Mendis threw away their wickets.
The Proteas will take a lot of positives out of the Test as Cook once again underlined his ability to overcome his technical deficiencies through sheer grit. He notched up his 3rd ton of the year, the highest for a South African batsman this year.
Here are the talking points from the Test.
#5 Kusal Perera under heavy scrutiny
Critics were sceptical of Kusal Perera’s abilities in Test cricket going in to the series. As if the selection was not enough, Lanka decided to play him in what is considered the most critical batting position in Test cricket, no.3.
With an unmistakable resemblance to Sanath Jayasuriya in his batting style, Perera attacks the ball irrespective of the situation. But there is a fine line between aggressive batting and reckless batting and Perera has firmly crossed that line.
His first innings slash off Philander that evoked an easy edge to de Kock was followed by an attack on Maharaj when he was getting turn and bounce. Two single digit scores would mean Sri Lanka need to rethink their strategy of bringing him at 3.