Tea South Africa 257 for 5 (de Villiers 56*, Prince 38*) lead Sri Lanka 180 by 77 runs
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South Africa were building a useful advantage by tea on the second day in Centurion, although they had been made to work hard by a spirited Sri Lanka bowling attack. Thisara Perera took two wickets during an impressive morning-session spell and Jacques Kallis was roughed up by Dilhara Fernando before falling shortly after lunch, but AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince formed an unbroken stand of 84 as South Africa held a lead of 77.
When Kallis edged Chanaka Welegedara to third slip South Africa were 173 for 5, still seven runs behind, and the contest was heading back towards an even keel. Sri Lanka came close to another breakthrough as Prince began his innings in charmed fashion with one edge wide of the slips and another over their heads. On 23 he was given a life when Perera couldn't hold a low chance in the gully and his partnership with de Villiers started to reassert South Africa's control.
de Villiers didn't over attack during his innings, which was a criticism of some of his batting against Australia, but kept the scoreboard ticking. Before lunch he had driven straight down the ground beautifully and during the afternoon he helped himself to a couple of pull shots when the quicks dropped short. His fifty came from 91 balls and, on a surface offering assistance, was shaping up to be a match-defining innings.
Some of Tillakaratne Dilshan's tactics were also odd as he allowed easy singles off Rangana Herath and also briefly bowled himself in tandem with Herath. He needed to be mindful of the runs conceded, but it allowed too many releases for the batsmen.
South Africa began the day on 90 for 1 and Dale Steyn, the nightwatchman, didn't hold up the visitors for long when he worked the ball into the leg side and appeared absent-minded to the fact it had gone straight to Herath, who hit the stumps after Steyn had sauntered down the pitch.
There continued to be plenty of assistance for the quick bowlers - the morning pitch report had shown indentations forming on the surface - and life wasn't easy for South Africa's batsmen. Jacques Rudolph, battling the pain of his dislocated finger from the first day, struggled for fluency and was put down at second slip on 30, when Mahela Jayawaradene couldn't hold a tough chance to his left.
Hashim Amla was more fluent, especially through the off side, but had there been a third slip he may have departed for 14, when he edged Welegedara. Dilshan at least noted the near miss and posted an extra catcher when Perera came into the attack. It brought an immediate result. Angelo Mathews held a sharp chance, low to his right, when Amla went to drive a delivery that wasn't as full as he thought.
Perera had been disappointing the previous evening with the new ball, but settled into a probing spell and found significant seam movement. He was rewarded with a second wicket when he found Rudolph's outside edge with another delivery that nipped away from the left-hand batsman to end a 140-ball stay.
Kallis had started his innings in fine style, and took three boundaries off an over against Perera, but badly misjudged the length of a Fernando short ball. He ducked straight into the delivery which smashed him on the side of the helmet and immediately lay on the ground as the physio - and later the team doctor - checked him over. He had been cut on the ear and appeared unsteady as he got to his feet, but resumed his innings.
It was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to make life hard for him and Fernando should have gained the crucial scalp for his hard work when Kallis, on 27, edged to Kaushal Silva only for the wicketkeeper, who went one-handed to his right, to palm the ball away. Such a miss could have been hugely costly, but Kallis only added four more after the break.
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