Bowlers seal whitewash for Proteas
South Africa took sixteen wickets on day three of the third Test to clinch victory by an innings and 118 runs against Sri Lanka and complete a series whitewash.
It was the first time in their Test history that Sri Lanka lost sixteen wickets in a single day and they will be disappointed with how they have batted in this series.
Sri Lanka resumed on 80 for 4 on the morning of the third day and it didn’t take long for the Proteas to make inroads.
Vernon Philander started the rot when he had Dinesh Chandimal caught by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for 5.
Angelo Mathews (19) was the victim of a brilliant one-handed catch from de Kock off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada shortly afterwards.
Upul Tharanga showed a willingness to resist with his 24 but Wayne Parnell and debuatant Duanne Olivier split the remaining four wickets evenly between them with Sri Lanka ending on 131 all out 295 runs behind South Africa.
Faf du Plessis would then ask Sri Lanka to follow on and the chances of the Test ending in three days increased exponentially.
It took just seven balls for Sri Lanka to lose the first wicket of their second innings with Rabada given the task of taking the new ball with Philander and striking with his first ball.
Kaushal Silva copped a vicous unplayable ball that he nicked through to de Kock and had to go for nought.
Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis (24) managed to delay the inevitable for some time before the latter chopped one on from Parnell.
Karunaratne stuck around for a while but there was a revolving door at the other end with wickets tumbling as the opener edged towards his fifty.
Dhananjaya de Silva was well caught by Du Plessis off the bowling of young Olivier before Mathews fell victim to a cracking one handed catch for the second time in a day as the young quick got his second wicket in the same manner caught by the skipper.
Karunaratne was castled by Rabada shortly after reaching 50 and his failure to move past sixty means that Sri Lanka became the first team to go through a series without a single batsman making it to sixty since the 19th century.
Parnell and Olivier would again run through the tail although this time there were a few lusty blows from the likes of Suranga Lakmal who ended unbeaten on 31 as Sri Lanka fell to 177 all out.
Parnell ended as the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 51.
JP Duminy was awarded the man of the match award for his brilliant 155 in South Africa’s innings.
South Africa win the series 3-0 as the focus now shifts to the T20I series.
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