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Published 26 Dec, 2011 08:39am

De Lange strikes twice before Mahela reaches landmark

DURBAN: Debutant Marchant de Lange struck twice before Mahela Jayawardene joined an exclusive club as Sri Lanka reached 112 for three at lunch on the first day of the second test against South Africa on Monday.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat before the 21-year-old De Lange was handed the ball after just six overs and made an instant impact with figures of 2-5 from his first four overs at Kingsmead.

De Lange struck with the final ball of his second over when Tharanga Paranavitana chased a delivery outside the off stump and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher to be out for 12.

Kumar Sangakkara, the leading batsman on the International Cricket Council's official test rankings, was then caught behind for a duck off the second ball of De Lange's following over.

The left-hander was forced to play at an excellent delivery that pitched back-of-a-length and held its line just outside off stump, inducing a thin edge and another catch for Boucher as the tourists slipped to 47-2.

That brought Jayawardene, Sri Lanka's leading run-scorer, to the crease and he nudged his ninth delivery, from fast bowler Dale Steyn, square on the off-side for the single that took him off the mark and to 10,000 test runs.

The former captain, playing in his 127th test, is the ninth batsman to reach the landmark and the first Sri Lankan.

Current captain Tillakaratne Dilshan survived several rash shots at the start of his innings, but made it to 47 off 69 balls, before swinging a low full toss from leg-spinner Imran Tahir straight to Morne Morkel at long-leg.

Jayawardene remained unbeaten on 27 at lunch with Thilan Samaraweera on 17 as Sri Lanka look to fight back after losing the opener of the three-match series by an innings and 81 runs at Centurion.

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