***Official*** South Africa in Sri Lanka 2014

[Swingpanzee]

Tahir gone. Must play out the 8 overs for a draw.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Well **** this

 

[kykweer.proteas]

Lanka to be 4 down by close of play

 

[Swingpanzee]

AB dropping one, gosh.

Idk how we can save this match tbh, SL will have to bat at an absolute snail pace to not set a huge target by tea tomorrow, possibly earlier as well. Surving about 4 sessions is never easy, no matter how many times SA have done it.

 

[Swingpanzee]

Actually re-reading my post, well idk what target SL would like to set. I'd think about 320 would be enough for 4 sessions but not sure.

 

[Maximas]

I feared the SA tail might be annoyingly difficult to remove on a pitch like this if they batted properly, but we got there in the end, a lead of 150 is extremely handy and makes the game very difficult to lose. Herath and Perera bowled beautifully, benefited from the negative approach of the saffers for sure but gave little away and picked up wickets regularly, Perera in particular was impressive, Lakmal was decent, a bit unlucky not to get Amla and he bowled tight spells throughout the day and yesterday evening, not bad on a seamers graveyard. Mendis was completely ineffective, despite a complete lack of intent from the saffers he was still picked off easily and looked absolutely toothless despite a bit of assistance from the pitch. Looks like Tharanga does in fact still have those same old issues outside off, I thought he looked good during his 80 odd but it seems the problems remain, particularly when he is looking to simply defend, that weakness is going to be exploited by good bowlers outside the SC.

 

[Maximas]

Actually re-reading my post, well idk what target SL would like to set. I'd think about 320 would be enough for 4 sessions but not sure.

Matthews will look to set about 750 in two sessions I should think.

 

[Migara]

Interested to see Mendis bowling some proper off breaks and getting some handy bounce out of it. He even bowled a top spinner as well that almost took Dikwella. This fella has so mighty impressive fingers and has been saying for ages that he should be an off break bowler. Having a bouncing top spinner and a sliding carom ball will make his straighter ones deadly dangerous for both right and left handed alike.

 

[Maximas]

He'd have to change his style fairly substantially though, if he wants to become a genuine off-break bowler he needs to stop rushing through the crease and start pivoting over his front knee and start throwing it up in the air with some overspin

 

[morgieb]

Is Angelo Mathews prepared to lose to win?

Probably will just end up being a draw tbf.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Mathews will just let this meander to a dull draw and then accuse SA of not going for it

 

[Maximas]

I'd like to think that being 1-0 down would harden Matthews' resolve to really try and win this one

 

[kykweer.proteas]

I think sri lanka will target 350. 10 overs before tea time tomorrow.

will set up an exciting final Day whatever the result may be, win, lose or draw.

Edit: Actually sri lanka might target 300 to get South Africa in two minds to go for it or not, but Anything above 300 South Africa will dead bat for a draw from the outset.

 

[Maximas]

In all seriousness, Matthews will want at least 400 I'd have thought, will probably declare soon after tea unless we score quite quickly tomorrow

 

[viriya]

I think target should be 350 ideally by early tea tomorrow... 400 will take too long and favor a draw... Mahela might force Angelo's hand and make him more aggressive..

 

[karan316]

I had said earlier, SA does have issues with good spin bowling, Dilruwan was just awesome, Herath looks a bit worn out(he bowls a lot better than this), but bowled well despite of that. It was a horrible performance by Mendis today, was not bowling in the right areas.If he would have bowled better, the lead would have been really high. Hope he does well in the second innings. And Mathews making him bowl only 3-4 over spells was another factor, I mean when he bowls so many different deliveries, its obvious that he'll give away a few loose deliveries, but if you limit him to just 3-4 over spells, its going to be difficult to pick wickets. Lakmal bowled well in his limitations. I think SL are headed towards a victory here, some positive cricket required.

 

[Maximas]

A good situation to have a guy like Tharanga opening, he can take the game away from the saffers quickly here

 

[Maximas]

Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to promote Dickwella, Matthews or Vithanage up the order either

 

[Maximas]

Would be great if all boards could afford hotspot

 

[Prince EWS]

Would be great if all boards could afford hotspot

HotSpot for all Tests is absolutely something that should come out of ICC consolidated revenue IMO.