Dimuth Karunaratne’s century could not prevent South Africa from completing a 2-0 series win on the third day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

South Africa won by 10 wickets after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 211 in their second innings. Set to make 67 runs to win, the hosts sealed their victory half an hour after lunch.

Karunaratne, the Sri Lankan captain, made 103 after starting the day on 91. His dismissal started a collapse in which Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for 35 runs. Lungi Ngidi took 4/44 and fellow fast bowler Lutho Sipamla ripped through the tail to take 3/40.

Karunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella started brightly after Sri Lanka resumed on 150/4. Karunatne went to a 123-ball century with two successive off-side boundaries off Anrich Nortje but an attempted pull off the same bowler looped off a top edge to backward square leg.

Ngidi followed up with the wicket of Dickwella in the next over when a leading edge carried to mid-off and there was minimal resistance from the rest of the batting.

Aiden Markram batted aggressively at the start of the final innings but escaped when he edged a loose drive against Vishwa Fernando with his score on 14 in the last over before lunch. Kusal Mendis dived forward from second slip and appeared to take a good catch but a television review showed he had taken the ball on the bounce.

Markram finished on 36 not out while Dean Elgar followed up his 127 in the first innings with 31 not out. Player of the Series Elgar made 253 runs in the series and was only dismissed twice.

It was South Africa’s first Test series win since they defeated Pakistan 3-0 in South Africa in 2018/19. A surprise 2-0 home defeat against Sri Lanka in the same series started a sequence of three successive series losses.

Sri Lanka were hit hard by injuries in South Africa. Four players were injured during the first Test and could not play in Johannesburg, while leading fast bowler Suranga Lakmal and opening batsman Oshada Fernando were unable to play in either match because of injuries.

Captain Quinton de Kock hailed South Africa’s first series win in almost two years and praised a young bowling line-up who kept Sri Lanka under pressure for most of the two matches.

But he told SuperSport television he had “mixed feelings” about South Africa’s next assignment, a tour of Pakistan later this month. “I’m keen to play some cricket but bubble life at times can be a bit frustrating,” he said.

Both teams stayed at a country club for the duration of the series in a bio-secure environment to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“It’s really hard to stay in a bubble for a long time,” said Karunaratne, who completed a tenth Test century on Tuesday morning before his dismissal for 103 started a collapse.

While the South Africans will have a short time at home before leaving for Pakistan to start a two-Test series in Karachi on January 26, there will be no break for the Sri Lankans.

They will have to go into quarantine for six days after flying home on a charter flight and will have minimal time to prepare for two Tests against England in Galle, starting on January 14.

Karunaratne said he expected Sri Lanka to play well in home conditions but said both teams would face a test of mental strength because of the restrictions imposed by Covid.

‘Need some space’

“We can’t go out. We stay in the room, we go to the ground and we play cricket. We need some space to go out and eat something and meet friends. Unfortunately we don’t have that,” he said.

Karunaratne said Sri Lanka’s first innings collapse from 71/1 to 157 all out had hurt the team. “We had a good start but suddenly we lost wickets,” he said. “We fought back hard and we did a good job in patches.”

He highlighted the batting form of Kusal Perera in the injury-enforced role as an opening batsman and the bowling of opening bowlers Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando as “positives” to take back to Sri Lanka.

He said he hoped experienced players Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Suranga Lakmal would be fit for the England series.

De Kock brushed off talk that South Africa had gained “revenge” after losing a home series against Sri Lanka two seasons ago.

“After the year we had we just wanted to get off to a good start in the next season,” he said, referring to a year of mediocre results and cancelled tours because of Covid.

De Kock said he had been impressed with an inexperienced bowling attack.

“At times there were a couple of soft boundaries but when they came back they bowled very nicely. With more experience they will help us even more going forward.”

With AFP Inputs