SA face the heat from conditions and hosts

After Saturday's 180-run opening loss, South Africa captain AB de Villiers said his side would not spend time dissecting their performance, but would instead attempt to forget the match ever happened. With so many of their best players unavailable, perhaps that is not so bad a ploy. If South Africa's touring party did not seem outmatched in these conditions when they landed, they certainly do now. It will take a great deal of belief and a little luck to overcome an opponent, who has their measure in skill and technical proficiency.

The batsmen will reason they simply had a poor outing, and could not make their risks pay off with such a large total to chase, but foremost among the visitors' woes must be their bowling at the death. The last 12 overs of Sri Lanka's innings not only cost 137, but the South Africa attack also seemed incapable of adhering to any semblance of a plan. Yorkers were missed, often by a distance, and the fast men reverted to a puzzling Plan B of digging the ball in short, despite Kumar Sangakkara having clobbered plenty to the square-leg boundary throughout his innings.

Before the match de Villiers spoke of the potential he saw in Chris Morris and Rory Kleinveldt, but with all his fast bowlers available for the second game, experience may mark the route to success.

South Africa's fielding was also uncharacteristically poor, with a straightforward chance at slip going down early in the innings, before a slew of ground-

fielding errors surrendered free runs. Colombo's sticky heat was blamed for the visitors' general raggedness, but in 2013, an unfamiliar climate hardly serves as an adequate excuse for top-level sportsmen. South Africa are capable of being the best fielding side in the world on their day, and de Villiers will hope they have adapted to the heat after a week on the island.

Sri Lanka are not without their own troubles, and for many spectators, Lahiru Thirimanne's unease at the crease even as Sangakkara unleashed mayhem at the other end, epitomised the gulf in class between Sri Lanka's senior players and its youngsters. Thirimanne is batting out of position and lacks the power to perform the finishing role, but he and Dinesh Chandimal must take quickly to the roles they have been assigned, because it is unlikely they will bat in the top order as long as the veterans still take guard.