• Rain disrupted South Africa’s first test match in Durban, with Sri Lanka reducing the hosts to 80/4 as Temba Bavuma remained unbeaten on 28.
• Despite tough conditions, Sri Lanka’s skilled seamers impressed, earning praise from Proteas coach Ashwell Prince ahead of a brighter day two.

South Africa’s first home test match of the summer was halted after just 20.4 overs due to rain on day one in Durban.

Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first at Kingsmead, with their ever-improving seam department getting the job done early on.

Asitha and Vishwa Fernando each claimed one of the openers as Aiden Markram made nine and Tony de Zorzi just four.

Lahiru Kumara’s pace then enabled him to strike twice. He removed Tristan Stubbs (16) and David Beddingham (4).

At 80/4, lunch was taken and the rain only got worse.

While both of the final two sessions were washed out, a silver lining for the Proteas was that captain Temba Bavuma remained at the crease on an unbeaten 28 off 47 balls.

The skipper was lucky on a couple of occasions. He was caught off a no-ball as well as dropped by Dimuth Karunaratne.

However, the toss was always going to be a difficult one to lose given the conditions; and Proteas batting coach Ashwell Prince was quick to applaud the visiting bowlers, too.

“I think Sri Lanka over the years have always had a left-armer who swings it, going back all the way to Chaminda Vaas’ days,” Prince said.

“And now there’s nice variation, including guys who get it up above 140 clicks. It’s a skilled bowling line-up, and we respect that. We certainly have done our homework.”

Day two is scheduled to get underway at 9.30am on Thursday, with the forecast looking a lot brighter for the remainder of the test match.

Pictured above: Rain halts play at Kingsmead.

Source: @proteasmencsa