Lunch South Africa 80 for 4 (Bavuma 28*, Kumara 2-35) vs. Sri Lanka
Under the dark skies of Durban, Sri Lanka had a near-perfect first morning of a first Test: their captain inserted the opponents, before their seamers removed four South African batsmen.
But only 20.4 overs were possible on the first day, before rain arrived just before the scheduled lunch. It remained over Kingsmead, until play was suspended around 3 p.m.
Sri Lanka could have had an even better morning, but for two indiscretions. Bavuma, who survived 47 balls and ended the day with 28, should have been limited by Dimuth Karunaratne for 1 but wasted the low chance at second slip. That was in Vishwa’s bowling. Then, shortly before the rain came to shorten the session by four minutes, Bavuma beat a Kumara bouncer who was trying to hook, but Kumara was found to have overstepped marginally. Bavuma was heading to the locker room when the referees called him. At that time he was 20.
Bavuma, however, was perhaps the most restrained of South Africa’s batsmen. He covered the line of his stumps very well when Sri Lanka’s first bowlers connected in the channel, and although he was frequently hit on the outside edge, he did not seem particularly eager to feel the bat on the ball. He had wicketkeeper-batsman Kyle Verreyne for company when the showers came.
Although Kumara claimed two wickets, his four overs cost 35 runs. Asitha and Vishwa scored less than three an over.
The forecast for Thursday is for better weather. Sri Lanka will feel that they did justice to the good playing conditions they got by dint of winning the toss.
