Early today, Proteas seamer Vernon Philander insisted that results were all that mattered after he starred with the ball to leave Sri Lanka on the ropes after two days of the second Sunfoil Test at PPC Newlands in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The champion medium pacer took 4/27 to move past 150 Test wickets in his 39th match for South Africa as the tourists were bundled out for 110 in 43 overs, before the hosts extended their lead to 317 with all 10 second wickets intact.
The 31-year-old Philander’s wickets took his total to 35 in six matches at the famous Cape venue.
Speaking about the place, he said, “Coming here to the home of cricket, it’s always a good place to play and doing it at a ground I enjoy playing at. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to have taken it than at Newlands, but look, there’s a lot more wickets still to be taken in my career hopefully going forward.
Further he spoke about his performances, saying, “I cherish each wicket I take for my country, I just enjoy taking wickets and I want to take as many wickets as possible for my country.”
The genuine quick who regularly bowls in the 140-150kph range, Kagiso Rabada had done the early damage for the South Africans with his 4/37, which included his 50th Test wicket.
Following that was Philander tearing through the tail. He also removed the last two Sri Lankan wickets from consecutive deliveries, meaning he will be on a hat-trick going into the second innings.
When asked about his possible hat trick, he said, “I’m not to fazed about that, it’s more about winning the game.”
The Left Arm spinner Keshav Maharaj also played his hand with 2/32 on a day which started with Quinton de Kock completing his third career century after he made 101 (124 balls, 11 fours).
Du Plessis could have enforced the follow-on, but chose not to and Philander defended the choice of the skipper.
Reasoning in support of his captain, Philander said, “As a team we took a decision on what’s our best chance to win this game. We feel that setting up the game with the bat and giving the bowlers a bit of a break, with the back-to-back Test matches and the workload we had in PE, this is the best way for us going forward and to win the game.”
Concluding with how they want to proceed on Day three of the match, the medium pacer said, “There’s a lot of time left in the Test match and it’s a bit early to say what’s a good target. We’ll look to bat well tomorrow morning and then look at where we stand at lunch.”