South Africa bat, hand debut to Olivier

  South Africa opted not to try and inflict immediate damage to Sri Lanka’s fragile batting order on a Wanderers surface considered among the fastest and bounciest in the world, instead taking first opportunity to bat on a slightly overcast morning in Johannesburg.

That meant Sri Lanka would be chasing the game for the third time in three Tests, although Faf du Plessis’ decision was slightly curious given that South Africa chose not to field a spinner, instead handing Duanne Olivier his debut as part of a four-man pace attack.

Olivier, uncapped in any format for South Africa, has 224 first-class wickets at 21.38, despite being just 24, and replaced Keshav Maharaj in the XI; Wayne Parnell also came in for Kyle Abbott, after his decision to take up a Kolpak deal in England.

Sri Lanka were unchanged, with Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Kumara hoping to add to impressive tours, while trying to help stave off a whitewash.

The occasion of Hashim Amla’s 100th Test was marked before the toss with a presentation of a gold medal, commemorative plaque and shirt. He reaches the mark during a run of poor form, having not passed 50 in ten innings, but likely to get an early chance to rectify that situation.

South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Stephen Cook, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 JP Duminy, 5 Faf du Plessis (capt.), 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Duanne Olivier

Sri Lanka: 1 Kaushal Silva, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 7 Upul Tharanga, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Lahiru Kumara, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Nuwan Pradeep

-ESPN