Sri Lanka charged 396 in its opening innings and its highest test total in South Africa, but also lost two bowlers to injury to dampen its hopes in the series opener on Sunday.
Sri Lankans picked up where they left off on day one with an offensive hitting mark when Dasun Shanaka hit 66 and was not out in his first test of half a century. Shanaka’s innings were peppered with five sixes and Sri Lanka added 56 fast runs to their 340-6 nighttime total before South Africa finished the queue.
South Africa was 45-0 at lunch in their response and Sri Lanka’s bowling attack was greatly diminished with the absence of spinner Dhananjaya de Silva and speedy bowler Kasun Rajitha.
De Silva hit 79 with the bat on Saturday to help Sri Lanka to their impressive first-inning total, but had to retire injured during his innings with a left thigh injury. He has been ruled out for two weeks and will likely miss the rest of the two-round series, the Sri Lankan team said.
Pace bowler Rajitha stopped while bowling on Sunday morning and had to leave the field with a suspected groin injury, meaning Sri Lanka’s bowling attack was severely slowed on the second day, already that tourists tried to take advantage of their advantage in the test.
South Africa starters Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar faced 11 overs before the lunch break, with Markram reaching 27 without losing with five fours. Elgar was not out of 15, but South Africa was still 351 runs behind.
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