07 August 2004	Saturday	20 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

GALLE, Aug 6: Jacques Rudolph played a defiant knock as South Africa fought hard on the third day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium on Friday.

The compact left-hander struck an unbeaten 85 in South Africa's reply of 347-7 to the home side's big first innings score of 486. Nicky Boje was the other not out batsman on 31 at stumps.

Sri Lanka's hopes of enforcing a follow-on on a pitch conducive to spin bowling were dashed by a patient Rudolph as he batted for close to six hours hitting 12 boundaries off 252 balls.

Rudolph, who had slammed a double-century (222) on Test debut against Bangladesh in Chittagong last year, once again showed his penchant for getting runs on pitches of the sub-continent.

The 23-year-old frustrated the spinners as he always seemed to have enough time for his shots and also played the seamers with ease to complete 1,000 runs in Tests, having started the match at 981.

Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu was left rotating his abundant spin resources which proved inadequate as strike bowler Muttiah Muralitharan conceded 112 runs for his two scalps.

"They batted really well, probably coming out knowing what to expect," said Atapattu. "The ball is turning on this wicket but not so viciously as to make batting very difficult."

Muralitharan, barred from bowling his away-going 'doosra' delivery, looked unimpressive but had the satisfaction of leaving Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne behind in Test wickets tally.

The two spinners shared the world record of 527 before the Test but Muralitharan took the lead when he removed opener Martin Van Jaarsveld (37) caught bat-pad by Thilan Samaraweera at slip.

A well-set Jacques Kallis was his other victim in the second session after the batsman played positively for 59 off 78 deliveries with nine fours and a six to Muralitharan, whom he once hit for 14 in an over.

He was out trying to hit the off-spinner out of the ground once more as Kumar Sangakkara brought off a well-judged catch at mid wicket. "Everyone has off days and so it was with Murali. But it has more to do with people expecting him to come out and take five wickets in 20 overs each time which is not possible," said Atapattu.

"Rather than saying that Murali did not deliver for us, I would prefer to say that we would have done better if he had taken more wickets," he said. If Muralitharan could neither strike at regular intervals nor stem the flow of runs, left-arm spinner Sanath Jayasuriya did both as he picked up two important wickets in the second session.

He removed captain Graeme Smith (23) lbw and then induced an edge from Mark Boucher (six). Smith, who opens the batting, came in at number five because of a viral infection. Left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas and part-time off-spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan took a wicket each after the second new ball was taken in the last session.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka (1st innings): 486 (M. Jayawardene 237, C. Vaas 69, K. Sangakkara 58, R. Kaluwitharana 33, Pollock 4-48, Hayward 3-81)

South Africa (1st innings) (overnight 82-0)

B. Dippenaar run out 46

Jaarsveld c S'weera b Muralitharan 37

J. Rudolph not out 85

J. Kallis c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 59

G. Smith lbw b Jayasuriya 23

M. Boucher c K'witharana b Jayasuriya 6

S. Pollock c Sangakkara b Vaas 25

L. Klusener c Jayawardene b Dilshan 2

N. Boje not out 31

Extras (b14, lb8, nb10, w1) 33

Total (for seven wkts, 124 overs) 347

Fall of wkts: 1-84, 2-96, 3-168, 4-213, 5-225, 6-287, 7-295

Bowling: Vaas 22-9-45-1, Maharoof 19-9-42-0, Muralitharan 39-8-112-2,

Chandana 18-0-68-0, Jayasuriya 20-9-34-2, Dilshan 6-0-24-1.

Umpires: David Shepherd (ENG) and Daryl Harper (AUS)

TV umpire: Tyronne Wijewardene (SRI)

Match referee: Clive Lloyd (WIS). -AFP