South Africa have lost one and drawn three of four most recent home series while Sri Lanka have had more than a year of poor results since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan, whose last Test match, against India in Galle in July 2010, marked Sri Lanka’s most recent win.
Since then Sri Lanka have lost four and drawn 10 of 14 Tests. However, Sri Lanka’s fortunes will depend on the form of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who have been Sri Lanka’s leading batsmen for the past decade.
Sangakkara suffered a hand injury in his team’s only warm-up match at the weekend but is expected to play. The two have formed the backbone of the Sri Lanka batting order but much will be expected from the captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who is going through a lean patch.
While Dale Steyn refused to go as far as to say it was ‘payback time’ for the bowlers, he said the South Africans had made a close study of the Sri Lankan batsmen on video. “In the last two domestic games I bowled the quickest I have this season. The elbow is fine and my rhythm is good. Apart from the opening bowlers, we have Morne Morkel bowling thunderbolts from about 10 feet high and Jacques Kallis is bowling well too.”