Marchant de Lange shines on Test debut

year, but he couldn’t prevent Sri Lanka from having their best day of the series in Durban.
The oldest and youngest members in Sri Lanka’s squad, Thilan Samaraweera and debutant Dinesh Chandimal, added 111 in the second half of the day after de Lange troubled the visitors with a pacy spell.
Tillakaratne Dilshan boldly set his floundering batting unit a challenge by choosing to bat on the usually fast-bowler friendly Kingsmead pitch. Several days of sunshine in the lead-up to the match, though, helped make the track flatter than normal, offering little swing for the quicks. Dilshan’s adventurous continued when he batted – he attempted several flashy on-the-up drives, which he rarely middled though he also managed to avoid edging to the slip cordon. He and Tharanga Paranavitana saw off the challenge of a slightly out-of-sorts Dale Steyn and an improved Morne Morkel before de Lange came on to transform the morning session. Bowling off a surprisingly short run-up for someone who regularly hits the mid-140s, the 1.9m de Lange delivers the ball with a high-arm action that gives a trampoline effect to several of his deliveries.
That, coupled with his tight line outside off troubled Sri Lanka: first Paranavitana attempted a drive to a full ball, only to nick to the keeper, before Kumar Sangakkara got a peach that moved a hint away and forced him to play at, feathering through to Mark Boucher to give de Lange his second wicket in three deliveries.
Fears of a familiar Sri Lankan capitulation were eased as Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene set about rebuilding the innings. Dilshan’s cavalier strokes started to come off, including a controlled pull off Steyn for four, and he also capitalised on some freebies from Imran Tahir. Jaywardene got the single he needed to become the first Sri Lankan to 10 000 Test runs and looked assured in the middle. One of the highlights of his innings was a flat six over square leg, off a short ball down the leg side from Tahir. Dilshan was also given a hit-me ball by Tahir: a knee-high full toss outside leg stump.
Dilshan, instead of taking advantage, slapped it straight to deep-backward square leg to end his innings on 47 and raise more questions about the captain’s shot selection. Jayawardene and Samaraweera struck a flurry of boundaries to take Sri Lanka to lunch without further damage. Soon after the break, though, Morkel was finally rewarded for his probing bowling, as he got one to swerve in and crash into Jayawardene’s offstump. – Cricinfo.