{"id":6211,"date":"2011-12-17T00:25:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/cricket-perera-strikes-as-sri-lanka-battle-back-2\/"},"modified":"2011-12-17T00:25:59","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T22:25:59","slug":"cricket-perera-strikes-as-sri-lanka-battle-back-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-perera-strikes-as-sri-lanka-battle-back-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-Perera strikes as Sri Lanka battle back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Ken Borland<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">CENTURION, South Africa<\/span> Dec 16 (Reuters) &#8211; A top-class<br \/>\nspell of seam bowling by Thisara Perera allowed Sri Lanka to<br \/>\nrestore a semblance of parity as South Africa reached 168 for<br \/>\nfour at lunch on the second day of the first test on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa, replying to Sri Lanka&#8217;s first innings of 180,<br \/>\nresumed on 90 for one but made a poor start to the day when<br \/>\nnightwatchman Dale Steyn was run out for a duck in the second<br \/>\nover of the morning.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Steyn fended a lifting delivery from left-arm paceman<br \/>\nChanaka Welegedara away on the leg-side and there was confusion<br \/>\nbetween him and Jacques Rudolph, allowing Rangana Herath at<br \/>\nmid-wicket to score a direct hit on the stumps.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Rudolph and Hashim Amla (18) added 35 for the third wicket<br \/>\nbut the Sri Lankan bowlers kept plugging away and Perera reaped<br \/>\nthe reward.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bowling a consistent line and length outside off stump,<br \/>\nPerera found the edge of Amla&#8217;s bat and Angelo Mathews took a<br \/>\nfine diving catch at third slip.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Opening batsman Rudolph, battling the pain of a dislocated<br \/>\nlittle finger on his left hand, showed tremendous determination<br \/>\nin a 228-minute vigil at the crease but Perera ended his<br \/>\nresistance on 44, nipping away a delivery that found the edge<br \/>\nand travelled low to Tharanga Paranavitana at first slip.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jacques Kallis was on 28 not out at the break, with AB de<br \/>\nVilliers on 10, but his stay was not without incident.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He ducked into a bouncer from fast bowler Dilhara Fernando<br \/>\nand was struck a disorientating blow on the earpiece of his<br \/>\nhelmet. Kallis received treatment for seven minutes before<br \/>\nresuming his innings on 25 and was lucky as he prodded at the<br \/>\nfirst delivery of Fernando&#8217;s next over and edged a catch which<br \/>\ndiving wicketkeeper Kaushal Silva should have taken.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Borland CENTURION, South Africa Dec 16 (Reuters) &#8211; A top-class spell of seam bowling by Thisara Perera allowed Sri Lanka to restore a semblance of parity as South Africa reached 168 for four at lunch on the second day of the first test on Friday. South Africa, replying to Sri Lanka&#8217;s first innings [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}