GQEBERHA (South Africa)
\nPathum Nissanka made 89 to lead a strong Sri Lankan batting effort on the second day of the second Test against South Africa at St George\u2019s Park.
\nSri Lanka were 242-3 at the close in reply to South Africa\u2019s first innings of 358.
\nOpening batsman Nissanka seemed set for his third Test century before he charged down the wicket against left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, missed an attempted big hit and was bowled.
\nUntil then, Nissanka\u2019s only blemish was a missed chance to David Bedingham at first slip off Kagiso Rabada when the batsman had 22. Nissanka faced 157 balls and hit 11 fours and a six.
\n\u201cPathum was so good to watch but he will blame himself for the manner he got out,\u201d said Sri Lankan batting coach Thilina Kandamby.
\n\u201cThe bowlers were tired, the wicket was flat and he missed out. Even I could not believe it, but clearly there was a lapse of concentration.
\n\u201cPathum works very hard on his game. He has improved his strike rate in white ball cricket and when he came back to the Test side he wanted to know what to do to play long innings. He did well today but that last shot was a disappointment.\u201d
\nNissanka shared stands of 41 with Dimuth Karunaratne (20), 109 with Dinesh Chandimal (44) and 49 with Angelo Mathews, who finished the day on 40 not out.
\nKamindu Mendis joined Mathews after Nissanka was dismissed and batted brightly to make 30 not out in an unbeaten partnership of 43.
\nFriday\u2019s performance was in stark contrast to Sri Lanka\u2019s collapse to a record low of 42 all out in the first Test in Durban, which South Africa won by 233 runs.
\n\u201cWe all knew where we went wrong in Durban in the first innings. We went after a lot of balls wide outside off stump. These things happen in Test cricket. The boys were up for the challenge,\u201d said Kandamby.
\nKandamby added that the match was evenly poised but that Sri Lanka had an opportunity to take charge by securing a big first innings lead.
\nSouth Africa earlier added 89 for the loss of their last three wickets after resuming on 269-7. Wicketkeeper-batsman Kyle Verreynne needed just 49 balls to go from his overnight 48 not out to 105 not out.
\nVerreynne and Rabada (23) put on 56 for the ninth wicket and last man Dane Paterson (9) helped Verreynne add 33 before he was last man out, caught off an attempted slog against Lahiru Kumara.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very even at the moment,\u201d said Verreynne. \u201cAfter what happened in the first Test it was easy to think that we could have potentially blown them away after the way we batted.
\n\u201cBut they have come out and played really nicely and the pitch looks like it\u2019s getting better and better to bat on.
\n\u201cIf we can get two or three early wickets in the morning I think it will be in our favour. But I think both teams will think tonight that they\u2019ve got a fair shout.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GQEBERHA (South Africa) Pathum Nissanka made 89 to lead a strong Sri Lankan batting effort on the second day of the second Test against South Africa at St George\u2019s Park. Sri Lanka were 242-3 at the close in reply to South Africa\u2019s first innings of 358. Opening batsman Nissanka seemed set for his third Test […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-448086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n