Proteas centurion Kyle Verreynne believes the second Test against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park remains “even at the moment” but that “a few quick wickets swings it in our favour”.
Verreynne struck a brilliant third Test century of his career - and first on home soil - yesterday on the second day of the final Test in Gqeberha.
The Proteas wicket-keeper marshalled the tail excellently as the home team added a further 89 runs to their overnight total.
The majority of those came off Verreynne’s swinging bat as he took on the Sri Lankan attack chest-on. With the tourists sticking to their short-pitched barrage, Verreynne pulled and hooked excellently well to finish unbeaten on 105 (133 balls, 12x4, 3x6).
He was ably supported by Kagiso Rabada with the tail-ender contributing a valiant 23 in their 56-run partnership for the ninth wicket. Verreynne added a further 33 with last man Dane Paterson (9) to lift the Proteas to 358.
“I think sometimes when there’s a tail-ender, you're a bit nervous about how they're going to go about it,” Verreynne said.
“But KG just kept saying to me he's going to stick it out, which was really cool. I thought that he was going to be quite keen to just sort of have a swing and see how much he can get.
“But throughout that partnership, he was just saying, stay calm, I'll stay here with you. He said to me when they were going short, I’ll take a couple of knocks, it's fine, you're still batting on the other side.
“We've got two more wickets to go. So, I'll stick it out with you, just make sure you don't give it away, which was quite nice to hear.”
Verreynne has been in excellent form over the past 12 months, scoring 375 runs in 10 innings at an average of 41.66. He attributes this to the backing received from head coach Shukri Conrad and batting lead Ashwell Prince.
“It means so much as a player when you know that you have that sort of backing to grow on the international scene. Yeah, I think about a year ago this time, I'd just been left out of the side,” he said.
“So since Shuks has brought me back in, I think it's been nothing but backing and belief, and I think going out there to play and knowing that the coach is on your side, and the batting coach is on your side … I feel like the changeroom sort of really trusts me and believes in what I'm doing at the lower order.”
The Sri Lankan batting unit have, however, responded excellently to the task and had moved to 242/3 by stumps. The experienced Angelo Mathews is at the crease unbeaten on 40 along with the dangerous Kamindu Mendis (30 not out).
Verreynne, though, believes that if the Proteas’ bowlers can make early inroads this morning, the balance will tilt in favour of the home team again.
“Very even at the moment I think, obviously after what happened in the first Test, it's easy to sort of think that we could have potentially blown them away with how well we batted,” he said.
“But they've come out and played really nicely, and I think the pitch also looks like it's getting better and better to bat.
“It's probably even at the moment. If we can get two or three quick wickets in the morning, then I think it sort of swings into our favour.
“But I think, yeah, probably both teams will go back to the hotel tonight thinking, well, we are in with a fair shot here. So, yeah, good place to be.”