Hashim Amla got his captaincy career off with the perfect start when he led the South Africa to an 153 run victory in the opening Test match against Sri Lanka at Galle on Sunday.
Dean Elgar scored his second Test match century and his first as an opening batsman on the opening day of the first Test match against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Elgar was dismissed for 103 runs. This equalled his unbeaten maiden century against New Zealand. He also became the first Protea opening batsman to score a Test century in Sri Lanka. Elgar and Alviro Petersen shared a partnership of 70 runs and a 123 run partnership with Faf du Plessis.
Unfortunately the loss of Amla and de Villiers for low scores required the rest to score the runs.
Quinton de Kock made his maiden Test half-century, 51 off 90 balls.
In the final session, Sri Lanka took 4 wickets and left the Proteas on 268/5 at the close.
The Proteas were scoring more than four runs an over for most of the morning session.
Du Plessis became the fourth fastest South African to reach 1 000 Test runs behind Graeme Smith, de Villiers and Eddie Barlow.
Suranga Lakmal dismissed both Elgar and AB de Villiers. While Dilruwan Perera claimed the wickets of Petersen and du Plessis.
Night watchman, Dale Steyn, needed only two runs to reach 1 000 Test runs and 300 Test wickets.
JP Duminy scored his fourth Test century, the second in his last three matches and his first maiden Test against Sri Lanka. Duminy’s innings was his highest, either at home or away against any of the sub-continent teams, beating his 57 against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi last year.
Duminy and Vernon Philander made a partnership of 75 runs for the eighth wicket that made sure that the Proteas would reach their minimum target of 400.
Morne Morkel produced his highest score against Sri Lanka with 22 runs. He also helped Duminy both reach his century and put together a ninth wicket partnership of 66 runs.
It was the 50+ runs by Elgar, Duminy, du Plessis and de Kock that lead the Proteas to a commanding position and declare at 455/9.
On day 3 Dale Steyn took his 23rd five-wicket haul.
One of Philander's deliveries hit Upal Tharanga’s off-stump without breaking the wicket and the Sri Lankan opener went on to make 83 runs.
Interestingly, after Morkel dismissed Kumar Sangakkara, four overs and six runs later Steyn dismissed Mahela Jayawardene.
Captain Angelo Mathews and Herath put together a 71 run partnership before Imran Tahir bowled a full toss to remove Mathews' middle stump, while he was on his way to his third century in successive Test matches on 89 runs.
Sadly, Steyn suffered yet another blow to his already bruised right hand when he tried to stop a Herath shot off the bowling of Morkel.
Steyn finished the day with figures of 5/50, his second five-wicket haul in Sri Lanka.
In his first Test behind the stumps, de Kock made four dismissals (three catches and a stumping).
At the close of play Sri Lanka found themselves 172 runs behind with only one wicket left.
Philander became the second South African to be charged and fined for ball-tampering after an incident during the Test in Galle. He was fined 75% of his match fee for breaching clause 42.1 of the ICC's match playing conditions as footage viewed by the umpires after the close of play showed him "scratching the ball with his fingers and thumb".
In the third session, Steyn took three wickets in five overs.
When South Africa batted, they began with a 163-run lead from their first innings. Unfortunately their second innings were not as good as their first.
Elgar, du Plessis, Petersen and Amla could only manage 103 runs between them while De Villiers made 51 runs as he picked the boundaries.
During the tea break, South Africa declared.
Amla gave Sri Lanka four sessions to chase 370 in 122 overs.
Sri Lanka started well, knocking off 110 runs from the set target with Sangakkara scoring an unbeaten 50 runs. Sri Lanka reached 110/1 by the close of play, needing a further 260 for victory.
Sangakkara and Kaushal Silva collected 96 after Dale Steyn took out Tharanga.
Eranga came out to bat with eight stitches in the webbing of his right hand and had a tape securing his thumb and index finger.
Sri Lanka had lost five wickets for 40 runs in 18.2 overs.
The final pair of Herath and Eranga lasted just shy of five overs, with de Villiers ending the former's resistance with a spectacular diving take at second slip off Morkel.
Steyn and Morkel bowled South Africa to their third Test win in Sri Lanka with 16 wickets between them. De Kock finished with five catches.
Steyn was named man of the match for his return of 9/99 which is the best for South Africa in Sri Lanka. Steyn now has 371 Test wickets which has taken him past Pakistan legend, Imran Khan, into 16th place on the all-time list. His strike rate of 41.7 is substantially better than anybody else who has taken more than 200 wickets.
Morkel finished with 7/78 and a feature for both bowlers was not only their strike rates but the economy rates in the 40 overs bowled by Steyn and the 33 by Morkel.
De Kock can look back on a wonderful first Test as wicketkeeper-batsman. His nine dismissals in the match (eight catches and a stumping) constitute a South African record against Sri Lanka beating the eight of Mark Boucher (twice) and Dave Richardson. He also contributed 87 runs, including his maiden Test half-century, off only 130 balls.
Hashim Amla began his captaincy on a high in the country where they last lost an away Test series, in 2006.
