South Africa Vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test at Cape Town Day4 Cricinfo,Live Score

South Africa 580 for 4 decl. (Kallis 224, de Villiers 160*, Petersen 109) and 2 for 0 beat Sri Lanka 239 (Dilshan 78, Philander 3-46, Steyn 3-56) and 342 (Samaraweera 115*, Kallis 3-35) by 10 wickets 

South Africa won their first home series since 2008, a period in which they had been denied on five occasions, prevailing over Sri Lanka by 10 wickets to take the rubber 2-1. An innings defeat seemed the most likely result at the start of the day, but a wicketless pre-lunch session and another century from the resurgent Thilan Samaraweera helped Sri Lanka barely avoid that ignominy.

Needing two runs to win in the fourth innings, South Africa got home without facing a legal delivery, with Dhammika Prasad over-stepping and Alviro Petersen punching down the ground to trigger relief and smiles in the home camp. Graeme Smith has now captained his side to 41 Test wins - joint second with Steve Waugh in the all-time list. Only Ricky Ponting, with 48, lies ahead.

Smart stats Sri Lanka have now lost all the four series they have played in South Africa. However, this is the first tour in which they have won a match. South Africa regained form by winning their first home series since 2008. Their last home series win came against West Indies in 2008 (excluding Bangladesh matches). Since then, they lost to Australia and drew series against England, India and Australia. South Africa improved on their Cape Town record with another victory. They have now won 16 matches and lost just three at the venue since their readmission. Their only losses have come against Australia. The win is South Africa's sixth by a margin of ten wickets (excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe matches). It is also their second ten-wicket win in Tests in Cape Town after the victory against England in 1995-96. Thilan Samaraweera, who scored his second century of the series, becomes the first Sri Lankan batsman and the 11th visiting player to score two or more centuries in a series in South Africa since 1990.. Samaraweera became the seventh Sri Lankan player to score 5000 runs in Tests. His average of 53.42 is the second-highest among Sri Lankan players who have 5000-plus runs. Jacques Kallis became the second South African player to take six catches in a Test. Only five players have taken more catches (7) in a Test. Kallis also became only the fourth player to score a century and take six of more catches in the same Test. Matthew Hayden, Garry Sobers and Frank Woolley are the others to achieve this. Dale Steyn went wicketless in a completed innings for the second time in the series. While in Durban, he bowled 23 fruitless overs, on this occasion, he went 20 overs without success.

Once again, Vernon Philander made the breakthroughs for South Africa in a passage when they were beginning to look listless. Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews had extended their overnight association to 142 runs, and were looking at ease against the second new ball, when Philander ended the fun with a double-strike. The tail slogged along merrily, while Samaraweera chiselled his way to three-figures. Jacques Kallis and Imran Tahir side-stepped his defiance, and ended the innings at the stroke of tea.

Samaraweera's effort took his series tally to 339 runs, and put to rest all doubts over his ability to handle conditions outside the subcontinent. His century was only the fourth by a Sri Lankan in this country, with three of them coming on this tour, but it wasn't enough to extend the match to the fifth day.

As on the third evening, South Africa were persistent with their lines of attack at the start of play, but the rewards were not so readily available. The closest they came to getting a wicket before lunch was when Samaraweera was stranded mid-pitch following a misunderstanding with Mathews. Petersen picked up rapidly in the covers and had a good sight of the stumps as he threw, but missed. A little later, Mathews came close to being run out, but this time Hashim Amla's throw went wide.

Barring those two scares, Sri Lanka had few concerns in the morning. Samaraweera got going with a neat flick through square leg off the day's second ball, and a couple of controlled edges through the off side. Thereafter, he settled down to wait and pick off the leg-stump offerings that came his way. He got to his fifty by steering Tahir to third man as the first hour drew to a close. Mathews' first boundary of the morning came off a thick edge that flew past the cordon, but he gradually buckled down to seal his end. Progress came through dabs and tucks, until Tahir slipped a full toss on the pads that Mathews whipped expertly to the boundary.

With the pitch slowing down and seam movement absent, Smith moved the cordon from behind the wicket to front. Armed with the old ball, Kallis sent down an energetic spell of fast bumpers, with slip, short leg, short cover, silly mid-on, and later leg slip, in place, but Samaraweera stayed firm. The gambit had failed, and it was over to Philander with the second new ball.

Sensing the pivotal moment of the day, Samaraweera took Philander on. He cracked one square, plastered another down the ground, and pulled emphatically to take three boundaries in an over. Philander persevered, though, and dispatched Mathews in his next over, with an indipper that kept low to hit the pads. Two overs later, Dinesh Chandimal perished to a lazy waft away from the body, giving Kallis his fifth sharp catch in the match, all of them in the slips. He would later come on to hold a sixth off his own bowling, to go with three wickets and a double-century. The Man-of-the-Match adjudicators had an open-and-shut case in front of them.

South Africa Vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test at Cape Town Day3 Cricinfo,Live Score

Sri Lanka 138 for 4 (Mathews 28*, Samaraweera 19*) and 239 (Dilshan 78, Steyn 3-56, Philander 3-46) trail South Africa 580 for 4 dec by 203 runs

South Africa produced an exhibition of blistering seam and swing in the first innings, followed by nagging persistence in the second, to nip out 12 of the 18 wickets they needed for victory at the start of the third day. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander delivered spells of unmitigated menace to demolish Sri Lanka's last eight first-innings wickets for 90 runs, allowing South Africa to enforce the follow-on around 30 minutes after lunch.

The pair's combined first-innings effort on the third morning yielded 6 for 28 in 17 overs, and provided a cruel twist to Sri Lanka's plans of batting through the day. Wickets weren't that easy to come by in the second innings, following Tillakaratne Dilshan's customary brainfade, but South Africa chipped away to skim the top order by stumps.

The wicket-fest left Sri Lanka staring at defeat with two days of good weather expected in Cape Town. Their euphoria after winning the Boxing Day Test has steadily dissipated since the toss at Newlands, and the tone for another day of disappointment was set early in the piece.

Kumar Sangakkara leaned out to the third ball of the morning to square-drive Steyn uppishly to point, where Hashim Amla gleefully pouched the chance. Sangakkara's exit meant Thilan Samaraweera was in the middle much earlier than he'd have bargained for. Philander proceeded to systematically work him over with an exhibition of high quality seam bowling, easily the highlight of the day's action.

Philander hit his default lengths in his very first over, and got a couple to curl away devilishly as Samaraweera groped inside the line. In his next over, he repeated the dose to Mahela Jayawardene, befuddling him with another one that leapt away. Samaraweera nearly covered the line the next time, nudging it off the outer half of the blade towards gully.

Philander gradually moved the lure closer to off stump. Samaraweera spotted another one that straightened and let it whistle by, uneasily close to off stump. As if to get Samaraweera thinking, Philander nipped the final ball of that over - the last before drinks - back in, to produce an inside edge. The variation may have been on Samawaraweera's mind as he sipped on his drinks, and the uncertainty could have only increased when Philander's first ball after the break also jagged in. Samaraweera was gone next ball, clearly unsure which way the ball was going, and offering a limp bat in response. The ball snapped away to take the outside edge and land in the slips, putting a smile in Philander's face. Not once did he touch 140 kph in that spell. He didn't have to.

Steyn then took over, getting fast outswingers to buzz away in his second spell. His full length first drew Jayawardene into a fatal poke, and in his next over, Angelo Mathews feathered one that kept swerving from the time it left Steyn's hand. Imran Tahir ended the first session with a ball that confirmed there would be no respite against spin. It landed a couple of feet outside Thisara Perera's off stump, on the bowlers' foot marks, and spun back in viciously to have him bowled. Within the space of a session, Sri Lanka's outlook had turned just as drastically. Dinesh Chandimal kept fighting, but the tail had no chance against Philander after the break.

There might be a defence for Dilshan's strange decision at the toss, but there can be none for the shot he played in the second innings. He seemed to be walking to the dressing room even as he wafted loosely and edged Philander, who was snaking the shiny new ball even more viciously than in the morning. Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne stonewalled for 26.1 overs to produce Sri Lanka's longest partnership of the match thus far, but it was only a matter of time before South Africa made further incisions.

Thirimanne feathered Jacques Kallis onto his pad en route to short leg, to bring Sangakkara and Jayawardene together for the second time in the day. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, their two best batsmen were about to fail them again. By now, Tahir was getting the ball to do magic out of the rough, and Sangakkara inevitably nudged one to Kallis at slip. A little later, Kallis bent low and plucked Jayawardene's second outside edge of the day, this time against Morne Morkel. Samaraweera survived to stumps along with Mathews, but even a machine-gun celebration from him tomorrow might not suffice to rescue Sri Lanka.

South Africa walked back smiling and chirpy, but one man in the home team must be apprehensive. Mark Boucher clanged two regulation chances, that are not expected to affect the course of the game, unlike his drop of Sangakkara in Durban. Still, the South African selectors will be tempted to look at a young replacement sooner than later.

1st Test South Africa Easy Win By Austrelia

Amla, Smith tons lead SA to incredible win

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Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla both struck centuries that completed South Africa's humiliation of Australia on the third day at Newlands, where they cruised to victory by eight wickets. If Australia thought their Cape Town experience could not get any worse after they were dismissed for 47 on the second afternoon, they were badly mistaken, with Smith and Amla adding to the hurt for the visitors.

The winning runs came when Smith, who finished unbeaten on 101, clipped Peter Siddle through midwicket and South African fans jumped to their feet to celebrate a famous victory. This was a team that on the second day had been bowled out for 96.

In doing so, South Africa became just the second team in 60 years to win a Test having been bowled out for less than 100 in their first innings; the only other occasion in the modern era was New Zealand's success against India in Wellington in 2002. They also completed the second-highest chase in a Newlands Test.

But it was the way they batted on the third morning that highlighted the ridiculous nature of the second day, on which 23 wickets fell. After a quiet first hour in which they added 31, getting accustomed to the conditions, Amla and Smith demolished the Australia attack. Amla played some wonderful strokes, straight drives, cover drives and flicks off the pads, proving that there was nothing in the pitch that could not be handled by good technique.

He brought up his century, his first against Australia, with a cut for four off Mitchell Johnson from his 126th delivery and the crowd - by that stage anticipating a South Africa victory any moment - erupted. Amla had been dropped twice by the Australians, including off the last ball of the second day, and he made them pay for those errors.

The 195-run partnership ended when Amla, on 112, slashed at Mitchell Johnson and was caught at gully by Michael Clarke with 14 runs still needed for victory. Kallis and Smith pushed them over the line with ease.

Smith was equally masterful, after a couple of lucky edges early in the day. He brutalised Shane Watson during an over that cost 13, smashing a cut for four and walking at the bowler to drive another boundary. His hundred came up with the run that levelled the scores, a single pushed past mid-off from his 138th delivery.

The South Africans batted superbly but Australia's bowlers were disappointing. Johnson collected the late wicket of Amla and in doing so avoided the second wicketless Test of his career, but he found no swing and was rarely threatening. Harris did not bowl terribly but was costly, while Peter Siddle tried hard. But they never looked like taking nine wickets under sunny skies.

Australia had their chance to break into the middle order when in the third over of the day, Amla, on 30, edged Harris to first slip, where Watson moved to his left and put down a catch he should have taken.

It was the last realistic opportunity Australia had, until the match was gone. A desperate use of the referral system confirmed that an lbw appeal from Harris to Amla was rightly denied by the umpire Billy Doctrove, the ball sailing well down the leg side, and it was just another example of the frayed mindset the Australians were experiencing after their humiliating day on Thursday.

They have six days to collect their thoughts before the second Test at the Wanderers.