Keshav Maharaj finished with 9-129 as the Sri Lankan tail added 74 runs to set 338 in their first innings of the second Test in Colombo.
It was a reasonably successful day one for the Proteas which saw Keshav Maharaj pick up eight wickets to limit Sri Lanka to 277-9.
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But in a similar fashion to the first Test in Galle, the Proteas struggled to stop a free-scoring tail.
The Proteas put in all the hard work on day one, but Rangana Herath (35) and Akila Dananjaya (43) frustrated the visitors. The pair batted with finesse to take Sri Lanka past the 300-run mark which the Proteas would have been desperate to prevent.
The pair scored Sri Lanka’s second-highest 10th wicket partnership – set by Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Muttiah Muralitharan in 2004 against Australia. The pair strung together 74 runs before Maharaj made history with his ninth wicket to dismiss Sri Lanka for 338.
Maharaj ended with career-best Test innings figures of 9-129, the best by a South African in Asia and the second-best bowling figures in a Test innings by a Protea, after Hugh Tayfield’s 9-113 in England in 1957.
Sri Lanka (first innings) 338 – Dhananjaya de Silva 60, Danushka Gunathilaka 57, Dimuth Karunaratne 53, Keshav Maharaj 9-129.
Photo: Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images
