De Bruyn, the 50s of Bavuma revive South Africa

Bavuma used sweeps but seemed more compact when playing with a straight bat. © AFP

Dean Elgar had spoken of Sri Lanka's "good sense of the street" is not to allow drummers to turn on the dust balls in the training games, which could have been otherwise But five innings and five wickets later, Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma gave a good account of how they can face the conditions once they have trained well. It was definitely their best session with the bat, but two w The bells fell in the last 10 minutes allowed Sri Lanka to pause again with a smile.

Taking the innings of 139 for 5, South Africa added 107 to its night score and reached 246 for 7 at the lunch of Day 4. It was necessary to run at 244. Early in the day, de Bruyn became the first South African to enter fifty in the series. It was a well-deserved reward for the way he was playing, and no one deserved that feat better. Having chosen the variations and covering the line of his stumps, he continued to display the same badurance that he had made on Sunday.

Bavuma, on the other hand, used scans but seemed more compact playing with a straight bat. . Shots on goal allowed him to get a first limit and continued to move the scoreboard, as well as the Sri Lankan skipper to pull out the kidnapper. He was also close to de Bruyn in the 1950s club, reaching the benchmark in just 69 balls

Even though there were a lot of bends and bounces, and not the easiest conditions, the sixth a century stand without chancel. The edges pbaded in front of the fielders, the ball pbaded in front of the bat – but never enough to threaten their stay. The spin trio of Rangana Herath, Akila Dananjaya and Dilruwan Perera, who did all the damage during the longest time of the South African heats, had to be finally rested. Suranga Lakmal finally came into play, as did Dananjaya de Silva and Danushka Gunathilaka

. However, with the arrival of lunch time, the senior members of the Sri Lankan team discussed and the drummers were cautious. And 10 minutes before the break, Rangana Herath drew Bavuma into a forward defense and induced an outside edge with a delivery of clbadic left armor to end their partnership on 123.

Kock's Quinton , entering a sensitive phase of the session, displayed no nerve and set off on a couple of productive catch-ups, before finally being trapped before lunch

Notes: Sri Lanka 338 & 275/5 decl. South African Lead at 124 & 246/7 (Theunis de Bruyn 85 *, Temba Bavuma 63 *, Rangana Focus 4-75, Akila Dananjaya 2-61) by 243 races.

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