Before the tour began it was obvious that the Lankans would not be much opposition to the competent and well knit Proteas led admirably and cleverly by Hansie Cronje. But while Tests were tipped to go the home team's way, Sri Lanka were expected to win the triangular series as world champions which also featured the Pakistanis.
The Lankans started the tour on a disastrous note when they were beaten by Auteng in a three-day opener at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg.
The second game against Boland also nearly ended in disaster but thanks to resistance by the middle order, the Lankans escaped defeat. It was in this game that coloured cricketer Roger Telemachus made his presence felt with some high class seam bowling that brought him to the forefront again. He continued from here and was always a thorn in the Sri Lankan batting and he richly deserves his slot in the South African squad to England.
These two poor performances went to bring out the best in the Lankans when they fronted up in the First Test at Newlands in Cape Town. The South Africans who had come back after being beaten in a Test series in Australia had charged all their batteries and were looking to electrocute the Lankans and redeem some of their lost prestige.
The wicket was a batsman's dream. To the credit of the curator here and the one at Centurion Park in Pretoria, it must be said that they laid out excellent wickets fit for Test cricket which helped the game's progress.
In this Test the Lankan cricketers showed that they have it in them to take on the South Africans on equal terms and also win. Chasing a victory target of 376 did not seem beyond the Lankans.
The Proteas knew the way the Lankans were going that unless they did something out of the ordinary they were doomed to defeat. First, the Lankans suffered some shocking umpiring decisions. Ranatunga in the first innings and Jayasuriya and Vaas in the second were undone by some atrocious umpiring. These decisions went to stall Sri Lanka's victory chase and although they finally succumbed to the South Africans by 70 runs it was no disgrace.
The bad umpiring came in for a lot of stick by all knowledgeable commentators including former SA captain Kepler Wessels and former wicket keeper Dave Richardson. They were shocked by what they saw and said their bit.
Frustrated by the progress of the Sri Lankan batsmen, Allan Donald and Sahun Pollock resorted to intimidatory tactics by viciously bouncing at even the tailenders. True they were bowling within the rules. But bouncing at tailenders is not the done thing. But the tailenders specially Pramodaya Wickremasinghe did not bend but took on Donald and Pollock and kept hitting them to all corners of the field and the six he hit off Pollock was a brilliant stroke.
At the end of although Lankans lost they won the admiration of everyone. Sri Lanka robbed of victory, thanks to some bad umpiring, would be the best way to sum up this First Test.
After the game skipper Arjuna Ranatunga told this writer that if it were not for the lack of concentration by some of the batsmen at vital moments Sri Lanka could have upset the South Africans.
At the post match press briefing Ranatunga when asked if the inconsistent umpiring deprived them of a victory they richly deserved, showed the diplomat in him by saying that ICC rules of conduct does not allow him to mouth what he feels but left it to the critics to judge.
The umpiring to say the least was not what was expected in a Test match! (More tomorrow)