Sri Lanka vs South Africa, 1st Test at Galle, , Jul 12 2018 - Ball by Ball Commentary

2.55pm That's it, then, from us. A thumping victory for Sri Lanka in two-and-a-half days. A lot for South Africa to ponder before they head to the SSC for the second Test. That begins next Friday. Until then, it's goodbye from me and Raghav.

Davinder: "Where you will rate Ind vs SA first Test earlier this year and this Test." -- An excellent comparison. India lost that Cape Town Test with their bowling on day one, allowing South Africa to make 280-odd on an extravagantly seaming pitch. Pretty much the same here, with Maharaj and, to a lesser extent, Shamsi letting Sri Lanka off the hook on day one, and South Africa having to play catch-up through the remainder of the game.

Mustafa Moudi: "In past 12 Months (From Aug '17 to July '18) in Test cricket: Eng defeated WI at home and lost their next series in Aus (Ashes), Aus after winning Ashes at home lost the away series to SA and now SA after beating Aus at home is on the verge of losing their away series to SL. So now whichever team SL will play next in an away series, must be licking their lips."

Suranga Lakmal: Roshan Abeysinghe paraphrases, very briefly, what he said in Sinhala - he said captaincy was a challenge, and hailed the efforts of his spinners.

Faf du Plessis: "We've only got ourselves to blame. That was a big turning point - when you bat first and they are 170 for 7, we needed to get them 220 all out. 280 was a big total, and even though we bowled well in the second innings, it was too far to catch up. Karunaratne looked like he was batting on another pitch. It was a fantastic effort from him. No matter how much you train before a series like this, you can't face the quality of spin you'll get in the Test match when you're playing in the nets. I think the surprising thing for us was the wetness of the outfield with the rain. Sri Lanka looked to get 20 wickets with spin. If it reverses, our seamers become a threat, but because of the wet outfield reverse wasn't a factor."

Dimuth Karunaratne is the hero of the match - not sure if that's also the man of the match award. I think it is. "After I got injured, I worked really hard in the A team to get my form back. I had to work really hard on this wicket. I think I always want to play positively and back my strengths. That's what I always do on turning tracks."

Dilruwan Perera: "Every spinner likes to bowl in Galle. I get a lot of drift here. It's very easy to bowl with Herath at the other end. South Africa have struggled in the past against offspinners. Rangana created pressure from one end, and I got the wickets."

Adithya: "How much difference would ABD have made?" -- Not enough to change how this Test match went, but this batting line-up could really, really do with someone of his class in the middle order. In these conditions, Bavuma and de Kock have looked terribly edgy and unable to trust their defence.

Salman Zafar: "All the eyes were set on Steyn as he stood on 419 Test scalps and just needed three to become South Africa's leading wicket taker. But nobody noticed that Rangana stood one step behind Dale (418 wickets), and has already gone past Shaun Pollock while Steyn has just equalled Him ..."

Kosala : "Karunaratne 218/1, SA 199/20. Karunaratne won by 19 runs."

2.28pm This is South Africa's lowest score since readmission. They had no answers to Herath and Dilruwan who bowled beautifully on a pitch full of turn and bounce. Some of their batsmen will also need to think about the kind of shots they played - there were two stumpings, and a whole lot of sweeps off the stumps. But that came about because they couldn't trust their defence against two bowlers who didn't give them an inch. South Africa's spinners in contrast, Maharaj in particular, gave the batsmen a lot of respite in Sri Lanka's first innings, and that was where this match was mostly won and lost. It also helped Sri Lanka that Dimuth Karunaratne, in both innings, batted like he wasn't just on another pitch but on another planet.

Sandakan. Sri Lanka have other bowlers! Round the wicket to Philander.

Avidhital: "Even if you take out Karunaratne's runs from both innings, south africa will come short. Such has been the batting from them given that even for SL, no one else has really done well. " -- Thing is, South Africa's spinners, who should have done the bulk of the bowling on this pitch, were pretty poor in the first innings, particularly Maharaj, and a set batsman, especially one who was batting as well as Karunaratne, was bound to capitalise. Their bowling is more at fault for this situation than their batting.

Over the wicket now.

Dilruwan continues from round the wicket. Slip, gully, short leg, leg gully.

Goes round the wicket now.