Sri Lanka Breaks Their Hoodoo - South Africa Reinforces Theirs

The other Boxing Day Test, also in the southern hemisphere, ended with a very different result for the home side. Sri Lanka trounced South Africa by 208 runs with Rangara Herath taking 5-79 and nine wickets for the match and Jacques Kallis bagging a pair.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel cleaned up the tail  in just eight overs in the morning, giving their batsmen the task of scoring 450 or batting out the best part of 170 overs to save the match. Morkel finished with 5-73 and looks to be closer to the form he was last in twelve months ago.

Ab de Villiers top scored

South Africa started the fourth innings, facing an uphill battle caused by poor batting in the first innings and a huge unnecessary deficit. Graeme Smith left first, unnerved by Fernando's erratic bounce and after jumping about in response to lifting deliveries, he followed one up and edged to slip. He could so easily have dropped his wrists but he was determined to play. Rudolph added 51 with the unflappable Hashim Amla before playing another terrible and unnecessary shot outside his off stump and being caught by a diving Mahel Jayawardene at second slip. Kallis, swept at Herath three overs later and was caught via the helmet at short leg. The DRS claimed him on appeal, as replays showed an edge took the ball to the helmet. It was the first pair of his 149 Test career and as the 4th highest run scorer in Tests, it stood in stark contrast to what No 3, Ricky Ponting, was doing in Melbourne. Amla committed batting suicide, pushing down the ground and calling as he ran for a single that was never there, so that when Ashwell Prince gave him the "heck -no-we-won't-go" treatment, he was run out by half the pitch. Prince was brutalised by some Fernando mongel, a short ball that Prince kept from his head but sent to first slip. Mark Boucher reviewed a ball from Herath that was going to hit middle stump. Had he been Adam Gilchrist, he would have walked.

From 1-88, South Africa had slumped to 6-133 in just 23 overs and when tea was taken three overs later, there was only AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn left and four sessions to bat. The runs calculation was erroneous.

Winners are grinners

At drinks in the last session, de Villiers and Steyn were still there, all stoic defence and proof that batting was possible. de Villers took 67 balls to reach twenty and Steyn 53 but as the session moved on, de Villiers took a few more risks, sweeping Herath to square leg for four and then hitting him over the fence at long off. With just eight overs to go in the day, Sri Lanka took the new ball but kept it in the hands of the spinners. After adding  99 for the 7th wicket, de Villiers went back to a ball from Herath that skidded on and lost the roll of the DRS dice. He was plum. The end took just another 23 deliveries. Morkel went down on one knee to sweep Dilshan, was hit on the thigh and rightly given lbw. Steyn finally played the wrong line and gained a similar fate but to Herath and Marchant de Lange swung and was bowled like a No 11 should.

Herath was named MOTM with figures of 9-128, although Thilan Samaraweera must have been very close with his innings anchoring 102 and then 43 in the second.

For Sri Lanka it was their first win in 18 months and for South Africa, their fourth consecutive loss to touring sides at Kingsmead.

Sri Lanka go to Capetown 1-1.