South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test at Cape Town, , Jan 03 2012 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Plenty more live cricket to come on ESPNcricinfo. The start of the one-day series between South Africa and Sri Lanka begins on Wednesday with a day-night match in Paarl. The third Test between Australia and India from Perth begins next Friday and then the world's best Test side (England by the way) return to action on January 17 for an intriguing series in the UAE against Pakistan. Hope you can join us.
Stay classy...

Read all about it, read all about it. South Africa win series!

Well that's that. Saffers victorious on home soil after a long pause. They now travel to New Zealand who recently drew in Australia and will pose a challenge, although South Africa will go into the series as favourites. The headline matches come in the middle of the year when the Proteas will be in the UK to play the the number No.1 Test side in the world. That should be a cracker.

"We were very poor in Durban and the guys all came out and played well for Jacques [Kallis'] 150th Test," says Graeme Smith. "We knew we were better than Durban.
"This is a strong ground for us and to see the crowds that have come out in support for us is the most important thing for us."

"After getting guys with a few starts we didn't go on to make big scores," says Dilshan. "Samaraweera batted superbly across the series."

Man of the Series to AB de Villiers. Consistent runs. "The surfaces have been a little bit odd but we batted really well here," says AB. "Captaincy [in the one-day series] will be a new challenge for me and we've got a nice set up and hopefully we play well."

Man of the Match of course to the home-town boy, Jacques Kallis. 224 runs, six catches, three wickets. "It's been a very special week," says Kallis. "A long as I don't read too many newspapers, I'll keep going as long as i'm enjoying it."

This must be the first target to be reached off zero balls? Indeed the table of lowest targets confirms as such.

South Africa win their first series since 2008 when they overturned Bangladesh, before that they beat West Indies in January 2008. The host broadcaster used the twitter hashtag #noexcuses for this series and the home side have delivered, albeit after a blip in Durban. But either side of that aberration they have dominated as many assumed they would.

This match could have been so different had Dilshan decided to bat first on day one but his extraordinarily negative decision backfired spectacularly. South Africa racked up a huge score and Kallis made the second double century of his career to follow up his first pair in the Boxing Day Test. Replying to such a score Sri Lanka looked to be going ok on such a flat pitch but they subsided and they game was only going one way after conceding such a big deficit. Samaraweera can take great credit though - his second century of the series taking him over 300 runs in the rubber and proving that a Sri Lankan can score runs outside the subcontinent. But the story is South Africa's and there's plenty more reaction to come...

An impossible situation for the openers here, they're just looking to get through unscathed and get this over and done with...it'll be Aliviro Petersen to face...
Cricket being the wonderfully quirky game it is meant that we've had to pause for a slice of Vicky sponge and a cup of Darjeeling before South Africa can complete victory here. They would have been pleased to have wrapped the Sri Lanka second innings up before tea after that very frustrating morning and now it could take just one ball for this match to finish. I'd sent Kallis out to score the winnings runs...a fine accolade after a quite superb match.