By Oliver Brett

In Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka have a genuine pace find

Sri Lanka lose very few Test series at home.

Nasser Hussain will go to his grave recalling his battling century at Kandy that turned round a 1-0 deficit into an extraordinary 2-1 series triumph in 2000 and Ricky Ponting's Australians brilliantly triumphed 3-0 earlier this year.

But mostly these days teams arrive for a Test series on this enchanting island knowing that they will largely be batting grimly for draws.

Clearly it does not help matters when you lose the toss as Graeme Smith did on both occasions in South Africa's recent series defeat.

Smith did not use that as an excuse for his team's poor showing as they were made to spend every session of every match playing a not-very-convincing game of catch-up.

Instead, he said his team lacked the hunger that his opponents clearly possessed and duly channelled towards a formidable 1-0 triumph.

But the series-clinching win in Colombo was a bit of a collector's item because it was achieved without the brilliance of their controversial talisman Muttiah Muralitharan.

Murali had not been at his best at Galle, it must be said.

In the drawn first Test he took 'only' five wickets. Something was clearly amiss and it was later found that he had a cyst in his shoulder that requires an operation and a long period of rest.

So in Colombo the bowling attack comprised seamers Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga, plus a battery of four spinners.

South Africa sent down a lot of overs of seam in Sri Lanka

Of that sextet, wily old Sanath Jayasuriya, with his sometimes innocuous-looking slow left-armers, struck gold on days two and three as South Africa were bowled out for 189 in their first innings.

After a rain-hit fourth day, a tense final day was in store.

"All of us were by the windows in our hotel rooms, drawing the curtains time and again to see what the weather was like," admitted captain Marvan Atapattu.

Rain did not interfere, instead his two seamers stole the show and South Africa limped off the stage with barely a whimper.

Next time South Africa play a Test match in the subcontinent they will surely attempt to play with more than one specialist spinner.

The selection of three seam-bowling all-rounders at Galle in the shape of Kallis, Klusener and Pollock was clearly misguided.

And though Klusener was dropped for Colombo, his place was not taken by a spinner but by a specialist batsman.

Sri Lanka have nothing but positives to take away from the series.

They scored nearly 500 in the first innings of both Tests, with double-hundreds for both Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.