Herath spins Sri Lanka to series sweep

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Monday completed a 2-0 Test sweep of South Africa to record their first series win over the Proteas since 2006 after Rangana Herath wreaked havoc with six wickets. The visitors were all out for 290 in the second session of day four in Colombo, 200 runs short of the highly improbable winning target of 490 on a bone-dry wicket. It was South Africa’s first Test whitewash since they went down in the island nation 2-0 in a two-match series almost 12 years ago. Sri Lanka had wrapped up the first Test in Galle within three days, reducing South Africa to 73 in the second innings -- their lowest Test total since the nation’s post-apartheid readmission to international cricket.

"Right through the series we didn’t have that ability to score partnerships. I think we only had three partnerships of 50 and above the whole series," Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s crestfallen skipper, said Monday. "But once again you have to give credit to the opposition. They were able to put us under pressure for long periods of time and therefore we made a lot of mistakes." In the second Test, Sri Lanka scored 338 in their first innings and South Africa could only respond with 124 as versatile off-spinner Akila Dananjaya made hay, taking five wickets.

The hosts then scored 275 for five before declaring halfway through the afternoon session on day three, setting the visitors a highly improbable victory target. They were already five wickets down for 139 at stumps on Sunday, with Dananjaya dismissing du Plessis for seven and left-arm spinner Herath getting Hashim Amla for six. The South African wickets fell despite a comedy of errors from Sri Lanka, who dropped two catches, wasted both their reviews -- on successive balls -- and could have had Dean Elgar out twice beforehand had Perera not overstepped.

Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma kept the Sri Lankan spinners at bay for most of the first session on Monday, putting on a valiant sixth-wicket stand of 123.

Sri Lanka first innings:

South Africa first innings: 124)

Sri Lanka second innings: 275/5 dec

South Africa 2nd innings (target 490, overnight 139-5)

D. Elgar lbw b Perera 37

A. Markram lbw b Herath 14

T. de Bruyn b Herath 101

H. Amla b Herath 6

F. du Plessis c Mathews b Dananjaya 7

K. Maharaj lbw b Dananjaya 0

T. Bavuma c Dickwella b Herath 63

Q. de Kock lbw b Herath 8

K. Rabada c Mathews b Perera 18

D. Steyn c Gunathilaka b Herath 6

L. Ngidi not out 4

Extras: (b16, lb5, nb4, w1) 26

Total: (all out; 86.5 overs) 290

Fall: 1-23 (Markram), 2-80 (Elgar), 3-100 (Amla), 4-113 (du Plessis), 5-113 (Maharaj), 6-236 (Bavuma, 7-246 (de Kock), 8-280 (de Bruyn), 9-280 (Rabada), 10-290 (Steyn)

Bowlers: Herath 32.5-5-98-6, Perera 30-4-90-2 (3nb), Dananjaya 19-2-67-2 (1nb), Lakmal 2-0-8-0, de Silva 2-0-5-0 (w1), Gunathilaka 1-0-1-0

Toss: Sri Lanka

Result: SL beat South Africa by 199 runs

Series: Sri Lanka win two-match series 2-0

Umpires: Nigel Llong (ENG), Rod Tucker (AUS)

TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS).