Top Five Players of the Week (July 23-29)

2. AKILA DANANJAYA:

Another wrist spinner surprising the batsmen

Akila Danajaya replaced Lakshan Sandakan in the second test match against South Africa. In the first innings itself, he rocked the South African batsmen and took a five-wicket haul, followed by two wickets in the second innings. Even after featuring in just one match, he was at the fifth position in the wicket-taking list. He also had 74 runs last-wicket partnership with Rangana Herath in the first innings, where he made undefeated 43 runs.

In the first ODI held this week between the two sides, Akila took three wickets with two back-to-back wickets of Amla and Markram in an over. He is currently at the third position in the wicket-taking list. The five-match ODI series currently is in favor of South Africa as they lead by 1-0.

1. KESHAV MAHARAJ:

Leading wicket-taker for South Africa against Sri Lanka

In the first test match against Sri Lanka, Maharaj had the support of Shamsi from the other end, but since the South African batsmen failed to perform against the Sri Lankan spinners, they decided to play with an extra batsman in the second test. Therefore, they picked Bruyn in place of Shamsi for the second test with only one full-time spinner in Maharaj.

As it was a spinning track, South African bowling was much dependent on Maharaj's bowling and he did not disappoint his team as he picked up nine wickets in the first innings followed by three wickets in the second innings. His figures of 9/129 are the best-ever by a Proteas spinner since their re-admission into cricket.

Unfortunately, South Africa lost the test series 2-0.