South Africa wrapped up a 233-run win over Sri Lanka and medium-pacer Marco Jansen finished with 11 wickets in the first Test on Saturday.
Sri Lanka was set an improbable 516 target and started the fourth day in a deep hole at 103-5. It was all out for 282, hastened by the dismissal of Dinesh Chandimal, who led the resistance with 83.
After Chandimal was out caught and bowled by Gerald Coetzee, Sri Lanka’s last three wickets folded for 11 runs in the next six overs.
Jansen took the last two wickets for 4-73 in the innings and 11-86 in the match for his maiden 10-for in his 14th Test.
“The conditions were favorable for seamers,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said. “We were confident that if they could put us in trouble, we could do so. Batting always felt tricky, you never felt in.”
South Africa, trying to reach its first World Test Championship final, moved up to second on the table, behind India and above Australia. The Proteas are unbeaten in seven Tests since February, winning six.
“The conversation (about the WTC) has been there, we are not too loud about it. It will come,” Bavuma said. “Our focus needs to be more internally, what we have been doing as a team and control that, let whatever happens happen.”
The second and last Test against Sri Lanka starts on Thursday in Gqeberha.
Sri Lanka was fighting uphill in Durban from the time it was out for a record-low 42 on Thursday.
The odds favored the visitor’s second innings ending before lunch on Saturday. But the 10th wicket wasn’t taken until about an hour afterward.
Only one wicket fell in the morning. Chandimal and captain Dhananjaya de Silva resisted at four runs an over. De Silva started on zero and 29 runs behind Chandimal, and caught up to his partner by mid-morning, notching his 50 in the next over.
De Silva couldn’t believe it when their 95-run stand ended. He tried turning spinner Keshav Maharaj and chipped the ball instead straight to Tristan Stubbs at midwicket. The captain scored 59 off 81, 42 of those runs to the boundary or beyond.
Chandimal fell next. To his 174th delivery, he gave a leading edge back to the bowler Coetzee. His patient 83 included a dozen boundaries.
Kusal Mendis lashed out with nine boundaries in his 48 and was the game’s 10th wicket for Jansen, who came round the wicket and induced an edge behind.
Asitha Fernando was the last man out, bowled by Jansen.
“Never thought I would get 10 wickets (in a match),” Jansen said. “It is a dream and that is what we work for.”
Kagiso Rabada, Coetzee and Maharaj took two wickets each.
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