Debutant Marchant de Lange upstaged the two fast bowlers he grew up admiring as South Africa and Sri Lanka shared the honours on the first day of the second Test match at Kingsmead.
The 21-year-old De Lange, replacing the injured Vernon Philander, took 4 for 60 as Sri Lanka reached 7 for 289 at stumps.
Thilan Samaraweera made a patient 86 not out and shared a crucial sixth wicket partnership of 111 with another new cap, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal, who hit 58.
Tall and strongly built, De Lange consistently bowled at more than 140kmh off a relatively short run-up to rip out three of Sri Lanka's leading batsmen.
De Lange took another wicket in the last over of the day when he had Thisara Perera caught at short leg.
Asked which fast bowlers he had admired and tried to emulate as a youngster, De Lange replied: "The two who were playing today - Dale (Steyn) and Morne (Morkel)."
Morkel took 2 for 55, including the key wicket of Mahela Jayawardene, who became the first Sri Lankan to reach 10,000 runs in Tests before being bowled by Morkel for 31, but Steyn went wicketless.
De Lange, who received a late call-up after Philander was ruled out by a knee injury, had Sri Lanka in trouble at 5 for 162 on a good batting pitch after dismissing Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews.
"I heard last night that I was playing and Vernon gave me good advice. He told me to stay calm and keep it simple," he said.
Veteran South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis said it had been an impressive performance by the young fast bowler from the small northern town of Tzaneen.
"He was on the button from ball one. We've got some very exciting times. A few people were worried about our bowling attack a little while ago but that's been put to bed. There are plenty of guys lining up," he said.
Kallis said the South Africans were satisfied with their day's work on a good batting pitch on a hot, humid day.
"We would have taken this if we had been offered it at the start of the day."
Sri Lanka coach Geoff Marsh hailed what he said was "a bit of a breakthrough for us" after a sequence of low totals in the first innings of Test matches.
Marsh admitted that the Sri Lankans had not been able to do much homework on De Lange, who was playing in only his 15th first-class match.
"We struggled to get video of him because he's played very little cricket," he said.
"It's great to see young kids coming through the system. He's definitely got a lot of talent and he's another exciting prospect in Test cricket."
AFP
Tags: cricket, sport, south-africa, sri-lanka First posted December 27, 2011 09:21:50
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