South Africa are only six wickets away from victory
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
South Africa enjoyed another dominant day in Cape Town and found themselves needing just six wickets to beat Sri Lanka and take an unassailable 2-0 series lead.
Starting off the day on 35/0, South Africa openers Dean Elgar and Stephen Cook added 29 runs to their overnight score before Cook was dismissed by Suranga Lakmal for 30.
Just five balls later, Lakmal had his second wicket as he clean bowled Hashim Amla for a duck.
Elgar and captain Faf du Plessis had just started to rebuild the innings with a 46-run stand, during which Elgar brought up his fifty, before he was removed by Rangana Herath for 55, which came off 91 balls and included seven boundaries.
Elgar (right) scored his fifth Test fifty
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
The Proteas continued to lose wickets at regular intervals after Elgar’s dismissal, including that of Du Plessis, who went on to make 41.
In the end, South Africa declared on 224/7, which set Sri Lanka a target of 507 runs to win.
Lakmal was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Herath and Lahiru Kumara chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Chasing 507 to win, Sri Lanka were dealt an early blow as opener Dimuth Karunaratne was clean bowled by Vernon Philander for six runs.
Philander struck again soon after as he sent Kusal Mendis packing for just four runs. To make matters worse, just when Sri Lanka were beginning to rebuild their innings after the quick double blow, Kagiso Rabada took out Kaushal Silva for 29.
Just 13 balls later, Dhananjaya de Silva was walking back to the pavilion after being given out lbw off the bowling of Rabada. Replays showed that the ball would have been missing leg stump, but De Silva opted not to review the decision.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews and wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal ensured no more wickets were lost courtesy of an unbeaten 61-run partnership before stumps was called.
Mathews finished on 29 off 50 balls, which included four boundaries, while Chandimal remained undefeated on 28 off 48 deliveries, which included three boundaries.
Philander and Rabada claimed two wickets apiece.
Sri Lanka ended day three on 130/4 and will continue batting on Thursday at 10:00 local time or 08:00 GMT.