JOHANNESBURG, January 14 (Reuters) - South Africa closed in on victory in the third and final test against a woeful Sri Lanka after enforcing the follow-on and reducing the tourists to 124 for six in their second innings at tea on Saturday. Sri Lanka still trail South Africa’s first-innings total of 426 by 171 runs, having already been bowled out for 131 as the out-gunned tourists lost 12 wickets in two sessions. Upul Tharanga is their last remaining recognised batsman and will resume after the break on nine, along with Rangana Herath, who has six. South Africa have been ruthless on a wicket providing plenty of steep bounce and lateral movement, with all of their seamers among the wickets. They made short work of wrapping up the tourists’ first innings after Sri Lanka resumed the day on 80 for four. Vernon Philander (3-28) started the rot when he induced an edge from Dinesh Chandimal to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock with the batsman on five. Kagiso Rabada (3-44) then grabbed the key wicket of Sri Lanka captain Angelo Matthews (19) soon afterwards as De Kock produced a magnificent diving catch in front of first slip. Debutant seamer Duanne Olivier (2-19) claimed his first test wicket when Herath top-edged a vicious bouncer and was caught by Stephen Cook, and later removed Tharanga (24), before Wayne Parnell took two wickets to wrap up the tail. South Africa captain Faf du Plessis enforced the follow-on and Sri Lanka were quickly on the back foot again as Rabada accounted for opener Kaushal Silva for a first ball duck, taken behind the stumps by De Kock. The tourists simply could not cope with the accuracy of the home side’s seamers and Parnell forced Kusal Mendis (24) to play on to his own stumps. Olivier snapped up two more quick wickets, with Dhananjaya de Silva (12) and Mathews (10) both caught at second slip by Du Plessis, who leapt to an almost impossible height to pluck the ball out of the air for the latter dismissal. Philander got in on the action to dismiss Chandimal (10), before Rabada rattled the stumps of opener Dimuth Karunaratne (50), who provided lone resistance for Sri Lanka. South Africa are seeking a clean-sweep in the series, having already claimed victories in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
