The series was a battle between South Africa's bowling against Sri Lanka's batting. That the Proteas emerged victorious was an indication that unless you have match-winning bowlers you are always likely to end up on the losing side however strong your batting is.
Nevertheless, in this instance the series was not lost due to the Sri Lankan bowlers failing to deliver the goods, but largely due to the failure of our much vaunted batting and, the South Africans' ability to outplay Sri Lanka in the mind game.
Cricket today is largely a game of the mind and unless Sri Lanka possess a sense of mental toughness they are bound to collapse under pressure. That was quite evident on the third day of the Centurion Park Test, for after gaining a handsome 103-run first innings lead, they collapsed to 93 for 7.
This is not the first time Sri Lanka had thrown away a golden opportunity to force a victory after being on top. Their most infamous Test was at the SSC grounds in August 1992, when after gaining a massive first innings lead of 291 and outplaying Allan Border's Australians for virtually four and a half days, they lost the Test (in the final session) by 16 runs.
Another Test which they failed to win, after taking a mammoth first innings lead (of 323 runs) was against New Zealand at Wellington in 1990-91. So, throwing away opportunities is not something new to Sri Lanka. The only period one can recall where Sri Lanka cricket really achieved a touch of professionalism and mental toughness was during the time Davenall Whatmore was in charge of the team as coach. He took Sri Lanka cricket to Himalayan heights.
None of the Sri Lankan batsmen were able to score a century on the tour in the two Tests nor in the two first-class side games in South Africa. The highest score in the Test series was 77 by Aravinda de Silva in the first Test at Cape Town, and the highest on the tour was 82 by Roshan Mahanama against Boland at Paarl.
Batting is considered to be Sri Lanka's strong point, and if none of their top flight batsmen could get into three-figures, it represents failure. Sri Lanka spearheaded by the wily Muthiah Muralitharan were still able to bowl out South Africa on three out of four occasions for totals of 418, 264 and 200, which is quite a good performance by any standard considering the limitations of our bowling. South Africa at that stage averaged only 2.65 runs per over, until skipper Hansie Cronje's calculated assault on Muralitharan in the final innings of the series pushed their overall scoring rate to three.
Where Sri Lanka lost out very badly was in their much reputed batting. Lack of patience was their greatest downfall. The South Africans with their laptop English coach Bob Woolmer to guide them, had done their homework well on the Sri Lankan batsmen. All that was required of their bowlers was to contain the batsmen and it wasn't long before they induced a false stroke from them. The South African bowlers performed their task to perfection and Sri Lanka fell easy prey.
The malady is bound to continue against top class bowling, till such time the domestic cricket structure is altered to a state where the competition between clubs is intensified and brought to a level with that of the Sheffield Shield in Australia and the Currie Cup in South Africa.
There is no purpose in blaming the current crop of batsmen for the failures. The root of the problem lies at home in our domestic set up. Once that is properly established the batting will present a much disciplined approach.
The present structure of cricket at home, is in some way responible for making Sri Lanka the world champions in one-day cricket. Although three day matches were introduced to the domestic scene in the late eighties, the opposition between certain clubs is such that most of these games are over inside two days, which hardly allows the batsmen to concentrate and play longer innings. The bowling is sometimes so substandard that the batsmen are able to score runs at a canter, which is ideal for a one-day game.
Now that they have seen and followed the performance of our team in South Africa, the national selectors can ask themselves the question, whether they were justified in picking a team based solely on experience. Wouldn't it have served the future of Sri Lanka cricket better, had the same results been obtained by playing a few youngsters. At least they would have learnt a lesson or two for the development of their game in the future.
A perfect example of how well South Africa utilised their under 24 tour to Sri Lanka three years ago can be seen by the fact that six of the players who made the tour - Adam Bacher, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, H.D. Ackerman, Gerhardus Liebenberg and Lance Klusener have gone on to make the Test side, while Nicky Boje, has played in one-day internationals. Comparatively, Russel Arnold and Mahela Jayawardene are the only players from the Sri Lanka under 24 side to come up to that level, although Ravindra Pushpakumara and Upul Chandana, who had already made the grade, also played in the series.
If at all South Africa had a weakness, it was against spin. This was amply proved by Muralitharan who with excellent support from left-armer Sanath Jayasuriya caused enough problems for their batsmen. The pair took 23 of the 33 wickets to fall to bowlers in the series, with Muralitharan finishing off on a high note with 16 wickets at a cost of 25.
Only Darryl Cullinan and Cronje played the slow bowlers with any confidence and it reflects in their batting averages, with both of them making over 200 runs in the short series. A dropped catch by Sri Lanka's most reliable fielder Roshan Mahanama helped resurrect Cullinan's faltering Test career. Having gone eight Tests without crossing the fifty mark and being dropped from the side as well, Cullinan made full use of his good fortune to carve out two consecutive centuries in the series and take the 'Man of the Series' award. Cronje's spectacular assault on 'danger man' Muralitharan at Centurion Park, where he reached the second fastest Test fifty off 31 balls, enabled the South Africans to break the stranglehold the Sri Lankan spinners had on them and probably provide them with some confidence ahead of the triangular one-day tournament.
The inability of any of Sri Lankan batsmen to dominate the South African fast bowlers like Cronje did against Muralitharan, also led to their downfall. South Africa's solitary spinner the unorthodox Paul Adams took only five out of the 36 Sri Lankan wickets that fell to the bowlers, the majority being claimed by the fast and medium-paced bowlers. Allan Donald reigned supreme taking 14 wickets, eight of them coming in the second Test, in a single-handed effort after losing his new ball partner Shaun Pollock through an injury.
Sans the second innings collapse at Centurion Park, the Test series overall, was very well fought with Sri Lanka for most of the time, taking on the South Africans toe to toe. Although much was said about the umpiring in the first Test at Cape Town, it should not be made an excuse for the defeat. Cricket is said to be a great leveller. Wasn't it the umpiring errors that enabled Sri Lanka to beat Zimbabwe at the SSC grounds nearly three months ago?