Herath 6-fer completes South African whitewash

After having read the variations of the spinners excellently for almost two-and-a-half sessions, Theunis de Bruyn erred once. And it took only one misjudgment on his part to end his innings. That's how tough the challenge was for the batsmen at the SSC. And yet, in the face of that and the face of the daunting target, de Bruyn stood tall. But even his century - only the second player to do so in the series - proved way too less for South Africa to avoid a defeat in the second Test, and with it, a whitewash. In 12 balls after his fall, the tourists folded and handed Sri Lanka a 199-run win.

Even in a Test where Keshav Maharaj bagged nine wickets in an innings - a rare feat in itself - there was none who shone brighter. Not in the Test, not in the series, not a visiting batsman in Asia in more than a year. Against sharp turn and bounce, he looked assured and compact, pegging away at the target. For company, the only able ally he found was Temba Bavuma, who stood up yet again in trying circumstances. He swept, reverse swept and tried a few fancy shots - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But he notched up a 69-ball fifty and put on a 123-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Having resumed Day 4 on 139 for 6, the duo had helped add 97 runs to their overnight score without any damage in almost two hours of play on Monday (July 23). More importantly, till that point, it was almost a chanceless innings played by both. The edges flew, defenses were beaten, but there was never a real chance that came Sri Lanka's way. The partnership revived the South African innings, but with very little batting to follow, it hadn't given the tourists much hope.

Together, Bavuma and de Bruyn had almost owned the morning session of play, but a bit of tentativeness against Rangana Herath resulted in the former's downfall, edging a forward defense to the 'keeper. Quinton de Kock couldn't play out the dying minutes of the session and ended up getting trapped by the left-armer, resulting in the visitors losing two wickets in a space of less than 10 minutes before Lunch - and that proved to a massive blow, destroying the momentum and killing whatever pressure that was built on the hosts. More importantly, with de Kock's fall, the hosts had managed to enter the tail.

With nearly 300 runs still to get, the onus was on de Bruyn to lead South Africa to any possible miracle. He kept that charge, and with ease played out the first half an hour. For company, he had Kagiso Rabada, who was struggling but had somehow managed to remain unbeaten for as long as de Bruyn was around. They stitched a 34-run stand, and en route that de Bruyn even brought up his maiden Test ton. It was a richly deserving landmark but soon after he failed to read Herath's arm-delivery and was bowled.

South Africa's tail offered very little resistance as they were bowled out in the next 12 deliveries. Herath struck twice more to bag his 33rd Test fifer, and finish off their innings for 290.

Faf du Plessis accepted the mistake of misreading the conditions and playing only a solitary spinner, which made a massive difference, especially after the opening day. Sri Lanka, who had outbatted and outbowled the visitors all along, deservingly won the series 2-0. Dimuth Karunaratne, who stroked half-centuries in both the innings, was named the player of the match as well as the series.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 338 (Dhananjaya de Silva 60; Keshav Maharaj 9-129) & 275/5 decl. (Dimuth Karunartne 85; Keshav Maharaj 3-154) beat South Africa 124 (Faf du Plessis 48; Akila Dananjaya 5-52) & 290 (Theunis de Bruyn 101; Rangana Hearth 6-98) by 199 runs.