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JOHANNESBURG.  — South Africa completed an excellent comeback victory over Sri Lanka to triumph by an innings and 45 runs shortly after lunch on the fourth day of the first Betway Test cricket at SuperSport Park in Centurion yesterday. The final game in the two-game series starts at the Imperial Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday.

This was an entertaining Test match which moved forward quickly right from the off when Sri Lanka, bravely opting to bat first on an alien seamer-friendly pitch, scored at more than four runs to the over as they compiled their biggest total — 396 — on South African soil. But, after such a disappointing start from their bowlers, at least on the first day, the Proteas took charge of the match as they replied with a mammoth 621 in their first innings — their highest ever total at SuperSport Park — thanks to a magisterial 199 from man-of-the-match Faf du Plessis and half-centuries from Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Keshav Maharaj. Commenting on his knock afterwards, Du Plessis said: “Personally I’m very proud of my 199, which was obviously one short, but to be able to contribute in a big way to help my team win was great as I haven’t played a red-ball game in almost a year. For me, it was about making sure I got back to the basics of good test cricket.”

Sri Lanka’s chances of remaining competitive were fatally compromised by a succession of injuries to key players, particularly top-order batsman Dhananjaya de Silva and pace bowlers Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara. This prompted debate about the need for the reform of ICC injury regulations.

Batting for the second time with a deficit of 225, Sri Lanka lost two early wickets on Monday evening before South Africa effectively finished them off in yesterday’s morning session, capturing five wickets with a greatly improved performance from their seamers, particularly Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi and Lutho Sipamla. — Supersport.com.