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Proteas off to fast start

Cape Town - South Africa have made a flying start to day one of the third and deciding Test against Sri Lanka at Newlands on Tueday, despite losing skipper Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla.

The Proteas went to lunch on 135/2 off 27 overs at exactly five runs per over.

Smith was bowled by Dhammika Prasad for 16.

Prasad then trapped Amla lbw, also for 16.

The two not out batsmen are Alviro Petersen 54* on Jacques Kallis on 47*.

Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl first.

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The hosts, who were thumped by a massive 208 runs at Kingsmead in Durban last week, have reacted by axing Ashwell Prince and replacing him with Alviro Petersen, who is back to open the batting.

Jacques Rudolph, who has struggled to make his mark since his Test return at the start of the summer, drops down the order ahead of Prince.

The one other change to the line-up sees the fit-again Vernon Philander come in for Marchant de Lange, unlucky to miss out after taking seven wickets in his debut innings.

Veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis plays his 150th Test on his home ground and will be hoping to find some runs with the series poised at 1-1.

Sri Lanka made two changes to their line-up, although they were boosted after Dinesh Chandimal, who made half-centuries in each innings of the last Test, passed a late fitness test on an elbow problem.

The other changes were Dhammika Prasad replacing the injured Dilhara Fernando (knee) and Lahiru Thirimanne taking over from the out-of-form Tharanga Paranavitana.

Teams

South Africa
Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Jacques Rudolph, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir

Sri Lanka
Tillakaratne Dilshan (captain), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Thisara Perera, Rangana Herath, Dhammika Prasad, Chanaka Welegedara
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