South Africa moved into second in the ICC World Test Championship following a 233-run victory over Sri Lanka in Durban, having wrapped it up inside four days.
Marco Jansen starred for the hosts, with 11 wickets in total in the match for just 86 runs.
Sri Lanka had been set a target of 516 in their second innings, having been bowled out for just 42 in their first, and started Saturday’s play already five wickets down.
But they did put up stubborn resistance in the face of defeat, with decent scores from Dinesh Chandimal (83) and Dhananjaya de Silva (59), who put on a sixth-wicket stand of 95 runs.
Kusal Mendis also reached 48, having held a partnership of 75 runs with Chandimal.
At the first drinks break on day four, the tourists had scored 61 runs in 16 overs and were steadily chipping away at their target.
Yet Keshav Maharaj (2-67) dismissed De Silva before Gerald Coetzee (2-67) caught and bowled Chandimal and Jansen (4-73 in Sri Lanka’s second innings) ended Mendis’ resistance.
Jansen fitting wrapped up the victory by sending Asitha Fernando packing for a duck as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 282, at least a marked improvement on their 78-minute horror show in their first innings, with South Africa taking a 1-0 lead in the two-match series
Data debrief: Proteas get the job done
While they were made to work for it on day four, this result represents a dominant victory for South Africa.
Jansen’s bowling figures of 11-86 are the second-best at Kingsmead since Clarrie Grimmett in 1936, and he has now taken 60 Test wickets. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, had previously been unbeaten at this venue.
Should the Proteas win the second Test, then they will secure a third successive series victory in the longest format, which they have not done since a run of three series wins between October 2017 to April 2018. (Spotsmax).