South Africa set Sri Lanka 370 to win in Galle Test after post-tea declaration

south-africa-vs-sri-lankaGalle (Sri Lanka), July 19 : South Africa on Saturday declared their second innings at 206-6 at tea on the fourth day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, and set the hosts a victory target of 370 runs.

The top scorers for the Proteas were A. B. DeVilliers (51), Faf du Plessis (37), Quentin de Kock (36) and Alviro Petersen (32). J. P. Duminy was batting on eight when the visitors decided to declare and set the Sri Lankans four sessions to try and win the match. Sri Lankan spinner MDK Perera claimed four wickets for 79 runs in the Soth African second innings.

At the time of the filing of this report, the Sri Lankans had scored 43 for the loss of opener Upal Tharanga's wicket for 14. Tharanga was caught behind of the bowling of Dale Steyn.

J K Silva and Kumar Sangakkarra were batting on 7 and 20 respectively.

Earlier, South Africa bowled out Sri Lanka for 292 in the first innings, to establish a lead of 163. They now lead by 369 runs with four wickets in hand. The Sri Lankan first innings was wrapped up in the fifth over of the day with paceman Morne Morkel (3-49) sending back overnight batsman Herath for 19.

Herath edged the bowler to second slip where AB de Villiers dived to his left to pluck a stunning catch and bring the curtain down on Sri Lanka's first innings.

Sri Lanka added just nine runs to their overnight score of 283-9.

Pace spearhead Dale Steyn was the star of the South African bowling, finishing with 5-54, his 23rd five-wicket haul in Tests. (ANI)