“We’re not giving up. They’re obviously in front of us, but if we can get some early wickets tomorrow, we can still push them back,” Matthews said. “And if we can, you know, get through the new ball, if we can push them back in the second and third spells and tire them out a bit, then we’ve got a chance.”
Instead, the evidence from the last three days is that it remains good for run-scoring which will give Sri Lanka hope they can mount a big target.
“It’s been playing very well. It’s been a bit strange, putting down and taking off, but it’s been playing very well. There’s always something going on for the fast bowlers and there’s been some turn of the ball as well,” Matthews said. “It’s a nice, even wicket and there’s competition with bat and ball on this wicket too, so it’s a great wicket to play on.”
They may regret that it could have been much more than that. At 242 for 3 at night, they were looking to take a first innings lead, but Mathews admitted that Sri Lanka were “unable to make them pay” due to “a few good balls”.
“The ball’s coming up at six foot nine or something. Obviously, he’s got bounce on any wicket,” Matthews said. “He got a lot of bounce on the Durban wickets as well. We couldn’t handle him in the first innings of the Durban Test. And here too he kept troubling our batsmen. This time we played him very well, but still he kept troubling us “We need to come up with some more plans to counter his bounce: that’s the worry: the odd guy bowls good lengths because of his height.”
Barring Jensen, Sri Lanka will have to contend with Kagiso Rabada, who was South Africa’s best bowler on the second day but got only one wicket, and Dane Patterson, who was full of confidence after his first five-wicket haul and a pitch that suited him. Were working on. Style of play.
“He [Paterson] I miss Vernon Philander. It’s really hard to score goals from him, and he’s constantly bringing it to the spot. So, yes, it’s going to take a lot of work, but yes, we’re willing to do that.”
Kusal Mendis is also included in this team, who won the series by scoring unbeaten 84 runs on 110 balls. This time it cannot be done, but Sri Lanka can level the match 1-1 and keep themselves in the race for the WTC final.
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