South Africa go top of WTC table with win over Sri Lanka

South Africa defeated Sri Lanka in Gqeberha on Monday, winning the second Test by 109 runs and moving to No.1 on the World Test Championship table.

Day five of the Test began on a knife’s edge, with Sri Lanka needing 143 runs to win and South Africa requiring five more wickets.

Cricket betting odds heavily favoured the home side to win, however, and the Proteas quickly dealt with the remaining Sri Lankan batsmen.

Keshav Maharaj was the catalyst for South Africa, dismissing Kusal Mendis (46) before cleaning out Prabath Jayasuriya (9) and Vishwa Fernando (5) to end with 5/76.

Captain Dhananjaya de Silva got through to his half-century but fell without adding anymore to his score, edging behind off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada.

“This Test for a lot of the guys was a proper Test,” South African captain Temba Bavuma said after the match.

“Rare that you get to play all five days, rare the game swings both sides.

“Credit to Sri Lanka for the way they went about their business, asked the right questions, they made us work hard for the win.

“We’ll take a lot of pride as a batting group.

“All of us are super happy for a guy like Ryan Rickelton, with the ball it was Marco (Jansen) and (Dane) Paterson.

“Guys putting in performances like that speaks of the hunger.

“WTC table looks good, still have two games to go. Don’t know what the math looks like.

“[We] want to continue what we’re doing, enjoy the victory, and in a couple of weeks’ time start speaking about Pakistan.”

South Africa now leapfrog Australia on the WTC table, sitting in pole position with a win percentage of 63.33%.

Australia (60.71%), India (57.29%) and Sri Lanka (45.45%) are still in the race for next year’s final, but one more win for South Africa from their two remaining Tests against Pakistan will be enough to secure their spot.

Cricket bookmakers are yet to release odds for the South Africa v Pakistan Test series, which starts on Boxing Day in Centurion.

However, odds are live at Bovada for the upcoming T20 series between the two, with South Africa -227.27 favourites to win the three-match contest.

South Africa are also -188.68 favourites to win the opening match on Tuesday in Durban, while Pakistan are at +150 for victory.

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