SL pacers rip through SA top-order in lively morning session

Sri Lanka’s pacers made full use of the lively morning conditions in Durban as they ripped through South Africa’s top order on the first day. Having chosen to bowl, the visitors got the ball moving early on conditions favouring seam movement. With a bit of cloud cover as well, batting was far from easy although Aiden Markram started off with couple of crisp boundaries off Asitha Fernando. But the pacer had the final word as he had Markram nicking while poking at a delivery outside off.

At the other end, Vishwa Fernando had Tony de Zorzi punching and nicking to the slip cordon in the following over. Having lost their openers within the space of three balls, South Africa were on the backfoot straightaway. Tristan Stubbs and Temba Bavuma arrested the slide for a brief period, seeing off the spell from the opening bowlers and giving some evidence of settling in. Lahiru Kumara was hit for 17 in his first over as South Africa landed their first blows back. But that joy was short-lived, for Kumara had Stubbs nicking in his following over. Kumara added the cherry on top as David Bedingham then chopped on in his following over, leaving South Africa in tatters at 54/4.

Bavuma, through the carnage, offered steadfast defence to hold one end up after being dropped on 1 by Karunaratne off Vishwa. Along with Kyle Verreynne, he saw South Africa through in the first session which was curtailed by the onset of rain towards the end of the session.

Brief Scores: South Africa 80/4 (Temba Bvuma 28*; Lahiru Kumara 2-35)