After the retirement of South African Test captain Graeme Smith, the new skipper Hashim Amla took them on the top with his first assignment as South Africa won the Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 by winning the first Test by 153 runs in Galle. The second Test ended in an exciting draw.
It was also South Africa’s first Test series win in Sri Lanka since 1993 when they first toured the island and defeated the hosts 1-0. They also won their ODI series before the Tests and became the first team to win both ODI and Test series on Sri Lankan soil in the same tour. It was a great effort for the visitors, especially after the departure of two greats Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis.
Amla will be a proud man, winning his first Test and also the series as captain. Amla led his team from the front as he was the top scorer (197 runs) among the visitors and second highest run-getter of the series after his counter-part Angelo Mathews (242 runs).
With the Test series win, South Africa have displaced Australia from the top position in the ICC Test rankings with 124 ranking points, one above Australia.
The Proteas reclaimed the top position which they held in August 2012, when they won in England to knock Andy Flower’s team off the top of the rankings, but the May 2014 home defeat by Australia displaced them from the number one position.
It was one of the exciting Test matches, as the hosts Sri Lanka were on course to beat South Africa in the second Test in Colombo and level the series, but luck, some sloppy fielding and bad weather prevented their possible victory.
Sri Lanka set the target of 369 for the Proteas. The South Africans were defensive from the beginning, never going for the chase. They scored just 159 runs in 111 overs in nearly six hours of batting. The Sri Lankans sensed victory when the spin duo of Herath and Parera at one stage restricted the visitors to 110-6. Philander, Steyn and Imran Tahir survived 32.4 overs and South Africa ended on 159-8. Amla had led South Africa’s resistance when he scored a fighting 25 off 159 balls; at one stage he faced 57 successive dot balls.
The Test began with a speedy first session where runs were scored at 4.42 runs an over by Sri Lankan batsmen, but ended with a session in which runs were scored at 1.38 an over by the defensive South Africans.
Sri Lanka probably deserved a win the second Test, but 111 overs on the spin friendly wicket should be enough against a side which is supposed to lack the ability to play quality spin. But South African batsmen showed their professional skills as not a single batsman went for any slogging.
This was the third time in four Tests that it was a final-over finish for Sri Lanka -- they came out on top in both Test matches in England, but luck did not favour them. Sri Lanka have had a dream run this year, but have been brought down at home in both ODIs and Tests. For Sri Lanka, it was only their second home series defeat since 2006.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s most prolific batsman ever Jacques Kallis announced retirement from all international cricket. He had already withdrawn from Test cricket after scoring a century in the Test against India in Durban in December 2013.
In a statement by Cricket South Africa, Kallis said: "I realised in Sri Lanka that my dream of playing in a World Cup was a bridge too far. I just knew on that tour that I was done. The squad that was in Sri Lanka is an amazing one and I believe they have a good chance of bringing the trophy home in March."
The 38-year-old Kallis is the third highest Test run scorer of all time with 13,289 after Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Ricky Ponting (13,378). He is the second on the list of batsmen with most Test centuries. He has 44 tons, not far behind Sachin’s 51.
Kallis proved himself a better all-rounder than Garfield Sobers (8,032 runs, 235 wickets, 109 catches in 93 Tests) and Sir Ian Botham (5,200 runs, 383 wickets, 120 catches in 102 Tests). Kallis is ranked third in Test all-rounders ranking. He is the first player to score 13,000 runs and take 250 wickets. He is the seventh highest ODI run scorer of all time with 11,579. He took 292 wickets in Test matches and an additional 273 in ODIs.
Kallis is among the very few batsmen in the world who have a Test batting average over 55. He is the only batsman after Sir Donald Bradman to have hit centuries in five consecutive Test matches. He scored 158, 177, 130*, 130*, 150* in five consecutive Tests.
Kallis was a man with a sound technique, mental strength and the ability to change his game according to the situation. Former Australian captain Steve Waugh once said that "we had tried simply everything against this guy, but we can’t find a weakness in his game". This is such a tribute from someone who was himself a master of the art of batting.
With 200 catches, he is the third most successful fielder in Tests, behind Rahul Dravid (210) and Mahela Jayawardene 200* (before the first Test against Pakistan).
Kallis made his Test debut against England at Durban on December 14, 1995. He made just one run in his first innings. His next seven Test innings produced only 57 runs, leaving him with an average of 7.13.
But the selectors continued to show confidence in him and selected him for the Australia tour. Playing in front of a massive Melbourne Cricket Ground Boxing Day crowd, Kallis made 15 in the first innings of the first Test. But in the second innings, with the Proteas set an improbable target of 381,
Kallis showed magnificent mental toughness to occupy the crease for around six hours in making 101. That effort saved the Test for South Africa and became the turning point in Kallis’s career.
In November 1998 the West Indies team toured South Africa for a five-Test series; Kallis undoubtedly was the star of the series with 485 runs at an average of 69.28. In addition, in the presence of Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, he also took 17 wickets at a very low average of 17.58.
He is the only man in history to score 24,000 runs, take 550 wickets and hold 300 catches in Test and ODIs. Kallis was declared the ICC Test Player of the Year in 2005.