Stats highlights from the fifth day of the second Test at the SSC, where South Africa batted 111 overs to save the match
Shiva Jayaraman28-Jul-20142 Number of Test series won by South Africa in Sri Lanka. Monday’s draw secured South Africa their second series win in five visits to the country. The only other time South Africa won here was in the first ever series between the teams in 1993, when the hosts were beaten 0-1.541 Deliveries that Hashim Amla faced in the match, which is the fourth highest a South Africa batsman has ever faced in a Test. Given that Amla was required to anchor South Africa’s first innings and to bat on a turning pitch to save the Test in their second, Amla scored only 164 runs both innings put together. The last time Amla batted 500-plus balls in a Test, against England at The Oval in 2012, he scored 311 runs in 529 balls at a strike rate of 58.79.18 Five-wicket hauls that Rangana Herath has taken in Tests, all of which have come since his most recent comeback in 2008. Herath has now gone past Dale Steyn and Graeme Swann as the bowler to have taken most five-wicket hauls since 2008.200 Catches Mahela Jayawardene has held in Tests, which is the second highest by any fielder. Rahul Dravid (210 catches) and Jacques Kallis are the only other fielders with 200 catches in Tests. However,Jayawardene is the quickest among the three to take 200 Test catches, having reached the landmark in his 147th Test. Dravid took 149 Tests and Kallis 166.0.88 Herath’s economy rate in South Africa’s second innings. Herath gave away just 40 runs off his 45 overs in the innings and took five wickets. The last time a bowler bowled 240 or more balls in an innings and ended up with more economical figures than Herath’s was in 1978, when England’s Phil Edmonds bowled 34 eight-ball overs and went for only 38 runs against New Zealand in Christchurch. There have been only nine instances of bowlers returning more economical figures than Herath’s from their 40-plus overs in a Test innings. The last time a bowler bowled 40-plus overs and went at less than a run per over was also when South Africa battled to save a Test: in Adelaide in 2012, Nathan Lyon conceded 49 runs in 50 overs as South Africa made 248 for 8 in 148 overs.4.87 JP Duminy’s strike rate in the Test, which is the second lowest for any batsman to have batted 100 or more balls in a match. Duminy, whose strike rate in the first innings was the sixth-lowest by a top-order batsman in an innings of 50 or more balls, batted slower than he did in the first innings to produce two of the slowest 50-plus ball innings in this Test. He scored off only six of the 123 balls he faced in this match. Duminy’s effort in the match was slower than Kyle Abott’s 114-ball 10 against Australia in Cape Town earlier this year, which is also one of the lowest strike rates by a batsman in a Test.17 Number of wickets taken by Sri Lanka’s spinners in this Test, which is only the seventh instance of Sri Lanka’s spinners taking 17 or more wickets in a Test. The last such instance was against England at Galle in 2012, when Herath and Suraj Randiv combined to take 18 wickets.111 Number of overs South Africa batted in their second innings, which is the sixth-highest any overseas team has batted in the fourth innings in Sri Lanka, and only one over less than South Africa’s effort at Moratuwa in 1993. On that occasion too, South Africa battled in the fourth innings to save the Test, ending with a score of 251 for 7 from 112 overs. The Moratuwa Test was the first of a three-Test series which South Africa won 1-0.
