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Nortje sparks Sri Lankan collapse


Bangladeshpost
Published : 03 Jan 2021 08:10 PM

When Sri Lanka raced to 71 for 1 towards the end of the opening session, Dimuth Karunaratne sat in the dressing room disappointed with his dismissal but at ease with the progress made. However, it took just four overs for South Africa to make him regret his decision. Sri Lanka slipped to 84 for 5 by Lunch and were shot down for 157 in 40.3 overs in the second session, agencies report.

Anrich Nortje hit the visitors for a six - ending with 6 for 56 - as Sri Lanka lost the plot completely. After resuming the session, there wasn't a lot of hope for Sri Lanka. Nortje had found his rhythm and they had the Wiaan Mulder threat to deal with as well. Niroshan Dickwella's shot to get dismissed summarised the kind of day Sri Lanka had with their batsmen being irresponsible and extremely poor with their execution.

Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera frustrated the hosts for a bit and added 39 to the total before Lutho Sipamla broke the stand. Nortje, who had bagged four wickets by then, didn't need to put in a lot of effort to end the procession as he bagged the last two wickets to cap off a brilliant day for him. South Africa openers - Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram - had to survive five overs before Tea and they did so without much fuss. Elgar struck four boundaries as South Africa scored at a brisk pace to end with 22 for no loss.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka handed debuts to Minod Bhanuka and Asitha Fernando but the openers found it tough to get going early on. Kusal Perera (60 off 67) had quite a few swings and misses as the visitors made just 19 in the first ten overs. In the next ten overs, Perera helped the side score 52 more runs to put South Africa under a bit of pressure.

At 71 for 1, Perera had scored 60 of those from the team's total. In the 16th over, Perera drilled Lungi Ngidi down the ground and then smashed one past the bowler on the next ball to take the score past fifty. In the 17th over, he got to his half-century off 54 balls with another boundary and refused to back down. Mulder struck in his second over as he dismissed Perera. The opener chased a wide one and was caught at gully.

There was more misery in store for the visitors as Kusal Mendis lasted just four balls and registered a duck. Thirimanne, dropped earlier at second slip by Elgar, continued to disappoint as he became Mulder's third victim just before the break. Bhanuka was the last to fall in the session as Sri Lanka handed the ascendency to South Africa in just 24 overs.