*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of South Africa 2019

[stephen]

When Sri Lanka toured Australia they were outclassed but nobody could have watched them and doubted their commitment and desire to win. They fought hard but lost. I'm really happy that they managed to pull this off. What a great win and something that should give Sri Lanka something to celebrate for a long while.

 

[nzfan]

That is an amazing effort by Sri Lanka. Their batters showed glimpses of natural flair and ability to bat in NZ in the one dayers but didn't think that sort of batting would work in test cricket. I thought the flair of their batters were better than ours in NZ. SL bowling let them down big time in NZ. Very glad to see them win a test match in South Africa. We need all teams doing equally well and don't want one or two teams dominating like in the past. It's not on our TV, now looking all over the net to find highlights of all the days of the test match. Sounds like an amazing test match. I guess South Africa can get over this, they generally win anyways so one loss shouldn't necessarily hurt them :-)

 

[the big bambino]

I’ve only read a few pages but some are a bit peeved with Philander. So what is his injury?

 

[straw man]

Huge congrats to Sri Lanka and Perera, what an incredible innings. First WI upset England and then this is even bigger (albeit not a series win, yet) against SA's incredible bowling attack.

it has been a long summer for SL touring here and getting dicked (bar one golden day from mathews and mendis) then touring aus with no mathews and getting dicked harder. everyone expected the greatest bloodbath of all in sa but the team pulled together for this. awesome.

Absolutely, everyone including me thought this series would be a thrashing to cap a summer of thrashings. To pull this stunt on top of that, and with injuries, and with weird selections, is pure amazing.

 

[morgieb]

This has to go close to the biggest Test upset of all-time. They looked so inept here and for pretty much the entire Test South Africa looked ahead. Remarkable victory.

Perera's innings has to be Top 5/10 of all-time too.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Have to say that the reaction from the SA players following the game, particularly Steyn and FdP was awesome.. Respect..

Steyn and Amla didnt even look mad that they lost. Wholesome hugs at the end.

 

[mr_mister]

This has to go close to the biggest Test upset of all-time. They looked so inept here and for pretty much the entire Test South Africa looked ahead. Remarkable victory.

Perera's innings has to be Top 5/10 of all-time too.

ATVG innings

 

[Daemon]

Sri Lankans have played the majority of ATG innings in the last 4-5 years haven't they?

Perera here, Mendis 176*, Chandimal in Galle, Karunaratne's 150 against SA when no one else scored 50. I'm sure I'm forgetting another one from Mendis.

 

[trundler]

Greatest innings during my lifetime.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Greatest innings during my lifetime.

Word!

 

[hendrix]

what the actual ****

 

[mr_mister]

I remember thinking after Shai Hopes twin tons that a new legend had arrived. He's done nothing since. Wonder if Perera will begin to flourish as a test player or if this will be a one off. Certainly hope he starts to peel off tons, enjoyable player

 

[quincywagstaff]

The thing about Perera was that even if his record wasn't great there were signs that he had what it takes to be a Test batsman. Especially outside Asia as his aggressive, punchy style I think works potentially very well on faster pitches compared with most SL batsmen. That he got left out of the Gabba Test was a major error considering how passive and insipid the SL bats picked were; if nothing else Perera has the ability to counterattack and hit some boundaries.

First noticed him in the 2016 Tests v Oz and while he wasn't particularly successful (had a tough time against Lyon) I liked his attitude and ability to score quick runs, especially in a low-scoring series. It seemed he had the right talent levels, if perhaps not quite the temperament as yet.

Perhaps more significantly was the final Test of the Windies tour last year; he'd had a lousy time with the bat and then gotten injured trying to take a catch so was initially unavailable when SL were chasing a modest total. But on the final morning with SL sinking to 6/83 chasing 144, he came in at 8 and hit a counterattacking 28* which was essential towards SL squaring the series; effectively a mini-version of this effort.

 

[quincywagstaff]

I remember when Australia chased down 300 v South Africa in 2011 (Cummins first Test where he hit the winning runs), much of the talk was about Dale Steyn's curiously poor record in the 4th innings of Tests when the opponents are chasing a decent target and - notwithstanding his 2 wickets in an over in the morning session - it's occurred again. For whatever reason doesn't seem as ruthless in being able to finish off opposition sides; seemed to make the tactical error of bowling bumpers to no 11 Fernando when consistently bowling at the stumps would've done the trick.

Also, could this be a career-ender for Philander? As fantastic as he's been for South Africa, he's been notoriously unreliable fitness wise and it's fair to say his unavailability yesterday was decisive

 

[mr_mister]

A gaping hole in the great Steyns record

 

[vcs]

Definitely not, Philander is still their best bowler at home (touch and go with Rabada at worst).

Their problem is that their batting lineup is as brittle as it's ever been and Amla is in a seemingly terminal slump. Signs were there in the Pakistan series. You have to put up enough runs to insure yourself against freak events like this, and let's face it, they were up against SL's attack, not the WI's 80's battery in this game, and didn't get enough runs.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

A gaping hole in the great Steyns record

The young and budding career of Steyn

 

[vcs]

And yeah, Steyn's not the bowler he once was either (no shame in that). Steyn of old would have run through once he'd picked up a couple. I do hope he has one or two memorable hauls still left in him though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Steyn bowled really well I thought. He was their best bowler all throughout the test.

 

[StephenZA]

I think talking about the poor record when you team loses forgets about all the times when you contributed to your team wins. Steyn has finished off innings many times. He avg 24 versus 22 in 4th innings. He was bowling bumpers when the ball was soft along with some straight balls. Pitched it up straight away with the new ball.

SA had their opportunities. Missed some run outs. It turned into a bit of a perfect storm for SL in a well deserved win. SA bowling did not fail, we did not put enough runs on the board simple, the batting failed like it has done for the last 18 months and it came home to bite yesterday. I was also not overly impressed with the way Faf captained when they still needed the 80 runs and we were on top.

Fantastic innings by Perera but I also think a mention on how well Vishwa bowled, did a great job.