De Villiers helps South Africa build huge lead

AB de Villiers cracked a breezy half-century as South Africa increased their lead on the fourth day of the first Test against Sri Lanka today.
De Villiers hit six boundaries in his 58-ball 51 and also shared 62 runs with Quinton de Kock (36) to take South Africa to 206-6 at tea.
The Proteas, who made 455-9 declared in their first innings before bowling out the hosts for 292, were sitting pretty with an overall lead of 369 runs with four wickets in hand.
No team has ever scored more than 300 runs in the final innings at Galle.
To their credit, the Sri Lankan spinners exploited well the dry and dusty track, accounting for all the wickets that fell in the South African second innings.

Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera picked an impressive 4-79 while Rangana Herath took 2-84.

Perera struck early into the second session, claiming the big wicket of Hashim Amla, who is leading South Africa for the first time in Test cricket.
Amla (22) mistimed his flick and lobbed the ball to a diving Upul Tharanga, capping a disappointing show with the bat in the game. He had made 11 in his first innings.
Faf du Plessis (37) fell to a turner from Herath that crashed on to his stumps, dislodging the bails.
De Villiers frustrated the spinners with his shot-making until his stumps were shattered by Perera close to the tea break.

De Kock fell on the last ball before the break, lobbing an easy return catch to Perera.
Earlier, South Africa started off cautiously against a bowling attack that relied heavily on spin in the absence of injured frontline seamer Shaminda Eranga.
Opener Dean Elgar, who made 103 in the first innings, was the first batsman to fall as he tried to go for an ambitious drive off Herath but nicked it behind to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.
Alviro Petersen (32) was given caught behind off Perera but the batsman asked for a review. TV replays remained inconclusive and in the end the decision of on-field umpire was upheld. The batsman walked off the field, shaking his head in disappointment.

South Africa had wrapped up the Sri Lankan innings in the fifth over of the day with paceman Morne Morkel (3-49) sending back overnight batsman Herath for 19.
The second and final Test will be played in Colombo from July 24-28.