An enthralling second day of the first Test between the Proteas and Sri Lanka produced a number of highlights at Kingsmead yesterday.
Here are our plays of the day...
Records
Marco Jansen’s seven-for saw Sri Lanka crumble to 42 all out, the lowest Test total in South Africa since readmission and the third lowest in Mzansi in history.
The left-arm quick returned figures of 7/13, the best of his 14-Test career and his second five-wicket haul as the 24-year-old marked his return to Test cricket.
Gerald Coetzee’s 2/18 and Kagiso Rabada’s 1/10 were just as important as South Africa bundled Sri Lanka out in just 83 deliveries, making it the second shortest Test innings in history.
Jansen’s 50th wicket
Returning for his second Test of the year following a 12-week-long rehabilitation and conditioning break, Jansen took his 50th Test wicket when he dismissed Sri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka.
In his first ball of the day, Jansen had drawn the right-handed batter into a forward defence shot and beat the outside edge by a whisker.
Eventually, the left-arm quick got the edge, David Bedingham did the rest at third slip, and the 24-year-old became the 36th South African Test bowler to reach the milestone.
Ball
Dinesh Chandimal was at the non-striker’s end when Jansen dismissed Nissanka with an away-swinger, and that memory seemed to have played on his mind when it was his turn to front up to the lanky left-arm quick.
Jansen delivered an in-swinger this time around at the right-hander, and found the gap between pad and bat, uprooting the off-stump off the ground.
Shot
Fast bowler Lahiru Kumara seemed to lean on the short-pitched deliveries as a strategy to Proteas Test captain Temba Bavuma.
On day one, the right-arm quick had the SA skipper caught behind off a bouncer, but the decision was overturned as Kumara had overstepped.
On day two, after passing his 22nd Test half-century, Bavuma opted for a much more brave approach to the bouncers.
With both feet in the air, Bavuma lobbed one of the bouncers over the third-man boundary for six to complete what was undoubtedly the best shot of the day.
"WHAT A SHOT BY TEMBA BAVUMA! 🥶🔥
— Kunj Shukla (@KunjShukla4) November 28, 2024
Easily one of the best strokes of the year! Pure class. 🏏#TembaBavuma #Cricket #ShotOfTheYear" pic.twitter.com/IylehKyvBe
Catch
Standing on the deep square-leg boundary, Dinesh Chandimal superbly caught an attempted hook from Kagiso Rabada off the bowling of seamer Asitha Fernando and helped Sri Lanka dismiss the hosts for 191.