Samaraweera saves the day for SL, impressive debut for De Lange

Thilan Samaraweera with his unbeaten 86 led Sri Lanka to fight back from a shaky start to reach 289-7 on the first day of the second Test against South Africa in Durban, on Monday.

Samaraweera shared a century stand with Dinesh Chandimal, who scored 58 on his Test debut.

Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first in an innings that saw Jayawardene become the ninth batsman to reach 10,000 test runs. But he could not stop the tourists from slumping to 162-5.

Fast bowler Marchant De Lange, 21, had been brought on after just six overs and he made an almost instant impact with figures of two for five from his first four overs at Kingsmead.

De Lange struck with the final ball of his second over when Tharanga Paranavitana chased a delivery outside off stump and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher to fall for 12.

He took four wickets during the course of the day, including that of Thisara Perera with the last ball before stumps.

Kumar Sangakkara, the leading batsman on the International Cricket Council's official Test rankings, was then caught behind for a duck off the second ball of De Lange's following over.

The left-hander was forced to play at an excellent delivery that pitched back-of-a-length and held its line just outside off stump, inducing a thin edge and another catch for Boucher as the tourists slipped to 47 for two.

The tall Easterns Titans bowler struck again after lunch when he took a good reflex catch off his own bowling to remove Angelo Mathews for 30 and end the promising fifth-wicket stand of 45 with Samaraweera.

De Lange went in for tea with three for 38 in 11 overs for Sri Lanka, who lost the opening match of the three-Test series by an innings and 81 runs at Centurion.

Jayawardene, Sri Lanka's leading Test-run scorer, reached the 10,000 run landmark with a single off the ninth delivery he faced, pushing fast bowler Dale Steyn square on the off-side.

The former captain got to 31 in his 127th Test before falling in the second over after lunch as he played all around a delivery from Morne Morkel, the ball nipping back and coming through the gate to bowl Jayawardene.

Samaraweera, who batted for 1-3/4 hours before tea, showed the most application and technical skill of the Sri Lankans.

The 22-year-old Chandimal dominated the unbeaten sixth-wicket stand of 35 with Samaraweera but the South Africans had a chance to remove him in the over before tea.

Chandimal, on 25, slogged at leg-spinner Imran Tahir, sending the ball skying over mid-on. De Lange, replacement for the injured Vernon Philander, ran back and leapt in the air but could not hold on to the catch.

Captain and opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan survived several rash shots at the start of his innings but made it to 47 off 69 balls before swinging a low full toss from Tahir straight to Morkel at long-leg.

Sri Lanka (first innings)
T. Paranavitana c Boucher b De Lange 12
T. Dilshan c Morkel b Tahir 47
K. Sangakkara c Boucher b De Lange  0
M. Jayawardene b Morkel  31
T. Samaraweera not out 86
A. Mathews c & bowled De Lange 30
D. Chandimal c Boucher b Morkel 58
T. Perera c Amla b De Lange 12
Extras: (lb-8, nb-5):13;
Total: (for seven wickets, 89.3 overs) 289;
Fall of wickets: 1-35 2-47 3-84 4-117 5-162 6-273 7-289;
Bowling: Steyn 19-3-55-0, Morkel 17-2-55-2 (nb-3), De Lange 16.3-2-60-4, Tahir 28-3-87-1 (nb-2), Kallis 9-1-24-0.