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| Friday, 13 August 2004 |
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Sangakkara, Jayasuriya shake South Africa by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Two wickets in one over late in the day by left-arm spinner Sanath Jayasuriya pushed South Africa on the back foot in the decisive second cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the SSC grounds yesterday after Kumar Sangakkara had scored his third successive Test double century. Jayasuriya who came onto bowl six overs before the close dismissed Martin van Jaarsveld for 51 (6 fours) and nightwatchman Nicky Boje for a duck for South Africa to end the second day on 116-3 in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings of 470. Until Jayasuriya's double strike it looked as if South Africa would end the day comfortably placed to match Sri Lanka's total. But the sudden turn of events and the way the pitch is playing with a little bit more pace and spin, South Africa is going to have a long fight ahead of them to get near the total. South Africa lost Herschelle Gibbs for a first ball duck, when he was trapped lbw by Vaas. It was not the ideal way to start a tour for the prolific Gibbs. Since playing his last Test against New Zealand in March, Gibbs has been very much short of match practice especially in the longer duration game. His two innings after the New Zealand series were two ducks in two Twenty20 matches before he injured his ankle. Yesterday's duck was his third in as many innings in all types of cricket. The second wicket stand of 108 in 134 minutes between Smith and van Jaarsveld ensured that Jacques Rudolph did not have to bat yesterday. The century maker at Galle, suffered a bruised left-arm as a result of a blow he received from a Malinga pull fielding at short leg. Van Jaarsveld was dismissed when he mistimed a drive to be caught at short cover and two balls later Boje played over a delivery from Jayasuriya to be bowled for a duck. For Jayasuriya who was bowling with a niggling side strain it was a double wicket maiden in his first over of the innings. At the end of the day skipper Graeme Smith was unbeaten on 49 scored off 95 balls with two fours and as many sixes and Jacques Kallis on four. Sangakkara duly completed his third successive Test double hundred as South Africa hit back to capture five Sri Lanka wickets for 45 runs. Left-hander Sangakkara went on to score 232 before edging a catch to Kallis at slip off Pollock to be eighth out at 418. But after the ninth wicket fell at 437, South Africa were held up for a further 70 minutes by the last wicket pair Upul Chandana and Lasith Malinga who added 33 valuable runs and extended the afternoon session by 16 minutes before Sri Lanka were finally dismissed for 470. Pollock and the South Africans were relieved to find the back of Sangakkara when he was finally dismissed after batting for 11 minutes under nine hours. He faced 357 balls and hit 31 fours, a six and one all-run four. It was not Sangakkara's fault that he put South Africa to the sword. Even yesterday they gave him his second reprieve when Pollock failed to hold onto a return catch when he was on 177. Had that catch been held in the seventh over of the morning, Sri Lanka's innings would have terminated much earlier. Sangakkara completed his third successive double century with a pull off Hayward for three in 311 balls (451 minutes) with 27 fours. It followed innings of 230 v Pakistan at Lahore in 2000-01 and 270 v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo early this year. Sangakkara's knock of 232 was the fourth highest ever made against South Africa after Australian Don Bradman's 299 (n.o.) at Adelaide in 1931-32, Englishman Eddie Paynter's 243 at Durban in 1938-39 and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene's 237 at Galle in the present series. Sangakkara also became the seventh Sri Lankan batsmen to pass 3000 runs in Test cricket during his magnificent knock. His aggregate currently stands at 3124 from 42 Tests. Aravinda de Silva (6361 runs), Sanath Jayasuriya (5945), Arjuna Ranatunga (5105), Marvan Atapattu (4732), Mahela Jayawardene (4630) and Hashan Tillakaratne (4545) are those ahead of him. Tilan Samaraweera (21) helped Sangakkara add 76 for the fifth wicket, before being caught at long leg on the hook shot five minutes before the lunch break. Nightwatchman Vaas was out 16 minutes into the second day when Pollock had him caught at first slip for 10. The rest of the Sri Lankan middle order batting was disappointing with Dilshan and Kaluwitharana making only 10 between them. Herath played on to Ntini for seven, but if South Africa thought they could wrap up the Sri Lankan innings before tea they were sadly mistaken. Malinga who was not comfortable facing the likes of McGrath and Co in Australia showed great improvement in his batting technique against Pollock and Ntini and stuck it out for 70 minutes to help Chandana in a useful last wicket stand. He was left eventually unbeaten on six made off 28 balls when Chandana ended his innings by trying to hoist Boje and was stumped. Pollock once again was impressive taking four wickets for 81, which left him one short of 350 Test wickets. SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
M. Atapattu c Boucher b Pollock 4
S. Jayasuriya lbw b Boje 43
K. Sangakkara c Kallis b Pollock 232
M. Jayawardene b Ntini 82
C. Vaas c van Jaarsveld b Pollock 10
T. Samaraweera c Ntini b Kallis 21
T. Dilshan c Kallis b Pollock 3
R. Kaluwitharana c Boucher b Hayward 7
U. Chandana st Boucher c Boje 40
R. Herath b Ntini 7
L. Malinga not out 6
Extras (lb-6 nb-8 w-1) 15
TOTAL (all out, 142.3 overs) 470
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4 2-99 3-291 4-316 5-392
6-399 7-416 8-418 9-437.
BOWLING: S. Pollock 30-8-81-4 (nb-5),
M. Ntini 33-6-108-2 (nb-2 w-1),
N. Hayward 17-4-75-1 (nb-1),
J.Kallis 17-6-54-1,
N. Boje 34.3-5-102-2,
J. Rudolph 4-0-16-0,
M. Van Jaarsveld 7-0-28-0.
SOUTH AFRICA - 1ST INNINGS
G. Smith not out 49
H. Gibbs lbw Vaas 0
M. van Jaarsveld c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 51
N. Boje b Jayasuriya 0
J. Kallis not out 4
Extras (lb-8 nb-4) 12
TOTAL (for three wickets, 37 overs) 116
TO BAT: B. Dippenaar, J. Rudolph,
S. Pollock, M. Boucher,
M. Ntini, N. Hayward.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 2-109 3-109.
BOWLING (to date): Vaas 7-3-10-1,
Malinga 8-1-33-0 (nb-4),
Herath 11-1-39-0,
Chandana 6-0-21-0,
Dilshan 2-0-3-0,
Jayasuriya 3-2-2-2.
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