South Africa vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: Sri Lanka tour of South Africa, 2016-17 Venue: St George's Park, Port Elizabeth Date & Time: Dec 26-Dec 30, 10:00 AM LOCAL

South Africa won by 206 runs to take the lead in the series. © Cricbuzz

The way Sri Lanka began yesterday in their pursuit of an improbable 488, they should have had an upper hand going into the final day. The openers who have been under the scanner for a while batted with purpose and exhibited a lot of patience against the new ball to put on 87 for the first wicket before a needless run out consumed Dimuth Karunaratne. The experiment to go in with Kusal Perera at No.3 didn't work again as he fell soon after as the visitors lost a bit of momentum.

Even though Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis revived the chase with half-centuries, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj struck crucial blows in the final session to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 240 for 5. They now need another 248 runs to win this Test and are heavily banking on skipper Mathews and their last recognised batsman Dhananjaya de Silva to pull off a miracle. With the ball still fairly new, South Africa will be pumped up as they know one early wicket can give them a sniff to finish things off quickly. Will it all over pretty soon or will Sri Lanka fight to cause a scare? Welcome to our live blog of the final day of the first Test.

Terrific start for South Africa very early in the day! They have got rid of the big scalp, Angelo Mathews. The skipper shuffles across looking to nudge the ball down to fine leg but misses it completely, gets hit high but the finger still goes up. He goes for the review with a bit of hesitation but he is a goner! There is no inside edge and the ball clips the stumps, the umpire's call stays. Sri Lanka's hopes are almost over now!

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All it took South Africa was 70 minutes on the final day to end this contest. Maharaj breaches Nuwan Pradeep's defence with a beauty to finish things. It's a massive 206-run win for the hosts as they take the lead in the series. Sri Lanka had their moments though, they bowled out South Africa for just 286 in the first innings and made a bright start in their pursuit of 488 but unfortunately lost steam by losing three crucial wickets in the final session yesterday. Mathews and Dhananjaya's dismissals early on the final day didn't help their cause.