Sri Lanka bank on Newlands factor

Rain saved Sri Lanka in the first Test in Durban, which ended in a draw on Saturday.

Captain Sanath Jayasuriya and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan are among the best match-winners of their generation.

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara provide classy batting support for the captain but the visitors have few other strengths. Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa were unable to penetrate the home side’s top order with their left-arm seamers in Durban and although Dilhara Fernando claimed five wickets South Africa confortably passed 400.

The tourists are contemplating including Pramodya Wickremasinghe to boost the attack but on another good batting surface he is unlikely to make the required difference. Pollock’s team, despite still being without the injured Allan Donald, are in tremendous form. The batting, boosted by the controversial inclusion of Herschelle Gibbs to open with Gary Kirsten, stretches down to number nine while the side also boasts six frontline bowlers.

The in-form, pace attackers Makhaya Ntini and Mfuneko Ngam have conspired to make Donald’s absence go almost unnoticed while Pollock sneaks in behind to pick up the pieces, and wickets. Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener can strike or contain and Nicky Boje has become a wicket-taking spinner.

It is hard to see Sri Lanka finding a way through the combined forces of South Africa’s all rounders even if their captain does score a century and Muralitharan claims eleven wickets, as he did in Durban to pass 300 in just his 58th Test. Even the inclusion of Gibbs, just 24 hours after the expiry of his six-month ban for conspiring with disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje to fix a one-day international against India last year, is unlikely to be a distraction.

Gibbs is regarded as a victim, not a criminal, by the South African public and Newlands is his home ground.

Teams
South Africa: Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Neil McKenzie, Lance Klusener, Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Shaun Pollock (captain), Makhaya Ntini, Mfuneko Ngam.

Sri Lanka (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Attapatu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Russell Arnold, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Romesh Kaluwitherana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Muttiah Muralitheran, Dilhara Fernando.