Sri Lanka got bundled out for 42, their lowest score in the history of Test cricket, on Day 2 of the first Test against South Africa on Thursday, November 28 at Kingsmead, Durban. Marco Jansen was the destroyer in chief for the hosts as he registered his career best bowling figures of 7/13 in 6.5 overs helping his team clean up Sri Lanka in just 13.5 overs.
Jansen delivered the second-best figures in Test cricket by a South African fast bowler. The tall left-arm pacer’s spell comes days after he was bought for 7 crore by Punjab Kings, nearly 50 percent more than his previous price of Rs 4.2 crore.
Jansen hit the right lengths and lines on a pitch that was doing enough to make life difficult for the batters. The left-arm pacer did not go searching for wickets and allowed the pitch to do its job on Thursday.
Apart from him, Gerland Coetzee (2/18) and Kagiso Rabada (1/10) were also amongst the wickets as Sri Lankan batters had no answers to their fiery pace. Kamindu Mendis (13) was the highest scorer for Sri Lanka, while apart from him, Lahiru Kumara (10* off 5) was the only other batter with a double-digit score. A total of five batters were dismissed for a duck as Sri Lanka broke the unwanted record of their lowest Test score ever, surpassing their previous lowest score of 71 which they scored against Pakistan in August 1994 in Kandy.
It’s also the sixth-lowest total in the history of Test cricket as they joined Australia, New Zealand and India who’ve also been bundled out for 42 in their Test history. Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka bundled out South Africa for 191 in the first innings as Asitha Fernando (3/44) and Lahiru Kumara (3/70) picked up three wickets each.
