South African pacer Marco Jansen stated that his teammate Gerald Coetzee asked him the name of the bookie as he took three wickets after bowling no balls on day two of the opening Test against Sri Lanka in Durban. The 24-year-old all-rounder stated that he immediately shut down any such ideas.
Jansen starred with seven wickets as South Africa consigned Sri Lanka to their lowest total in Test cricket, bowling them out for 42 runs. However, the striking feature of his first three wickets was that the 24-year-old dismissed Pathum Nissanka, Dinesh Chandimal, and Angelo Mathews after bowling front-foot no-balls.
Speaking to the media after the day's play, Jansen opined that not starting consistently on his mark initially was the reason behind his no balls. He said, as quoted by Cricbuzz:
"Gerald [Coetzee] actually asked me what's the bookie's name. And I said, 'There's no chance of that.' I either ran in too quickly or I didn't start on my mark consistently. From my third over, I tried to make a conscious effort to be a foot behind my mark. Every time I did that, I was either half-and-half [across the crease] or a bit behind."
The hosts began the day at 80/4 and dragged themselves to 191. However, they built their 149-run lead to 281 ahead of day three with seven wickets in hand.
"Thought we were going to get bowled out for around 120, 130-ish" - Marco Jansen
Jansen, in the aforementioned interview, also suggested that Temba Bavuma's hard-fought 70, which guided South Africa to 191 in the first innings, was as good as a century for the team. He said:
"I thought we were going to get the bowled out for around 120, 130-ish. Temba's 70 wasn't a hundred, but its value meant it might as well have been a hundred."
At stumps on day two, Bavuma was batting at 24 alongside Tristan Stubbs at 17, and will look to score big in the second innings. Prabath Jayasuriya took two wickets, while Vishwa Fernando picked up one.
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