Mathews: Sri Lanka ready to chase 'anything around or under 300'

Former captain Angelo Mathews is confident in Sri Lanka's chances of chasing down any total around or below 300 on a wicket that is playing exceptionally well at St George's Park.

Though he acknowledged South Africa, at 221 ahead with seven wickets in hand, have the advantage, Mathews brought fighting talk to the third day's post-play press conference, with Sri Lanka looking for a win to keep themselves in contention for next year's World Test Championship (WTC) final.

"We are not giving up. Obviously they are in front of us, but if we can get a couple of early wickets tomorrow, we can still push them back," Mathews said. "And if we can, you know, get through the new ball, if we can push them back into second and third spells and make them tire a little bit, then we have a chance."

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The highest score successfully chased at Gqeberha was 271 by Australia, 27 years ago and that sort of history may not be of much use to either side.

Instead, the evidence of the last three days is that it remains good for run-scoring which has given Sri Lanka hope that they can tackle a big chase.

"It's playing pretty well. It's just the odd one, keeping low and taking off, but it's playing pretty well. There's something always for the seamers and also a couple of balls also turned," Mathews said. "It's a good, even wicket and even contest with bat and ball on this wicket so it's a great wicket to play on."

Likewise, Sri Lanka's batters have acquitted themselves fairly well so far. The 42 all out aside, Sri Lanka have batted well on this tour, scoring 282 in their second innings in Durban and reaching their fourth highest total in the country, 328, in their first innings at St George's Park.

Marco Jansen has been nothing but trouble for Angelo Mathews and the other Sri Lanka batters this series

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What they may regret is that that could have been much higher. At 242 for 3 overnight, they were eyeing a first-innings lead but Mathews conceded Sri Lanka were "unable to capitalise," because of a "couple of good balls."

Mathews was on the receiving end of the first of those: a snorter from Marco Jansen that kicked up off a length and brushed the glove as he tried to fend it off. Jansen continued to generate good bounce thanks to his height and is the series' leading wicket-taker, with an innings to come in which Sri Lanka will have to be especially cautious.

"The ball is coming off six foot nine or something. Obviously, he gets bounce on any wicket," Mathews said. "The Durban wickets also, he got a lot of bounce. We couldn't really handle him in the first innings of the Durban Test. And also here he keeps troubling our batters. We played him pretty well this time around, but still he keeps troubling us. We need to come up with some more plans to try and combat his bounce. That's what's worrying: the odd one takes off on a good length as well because of his height."

Jansen aside, Sri Lanka will have to contend with Kagiso Rabada, who was South Africa's best bowler on the second day but only got one wicket, and Dane Paterson, high on confidence after his first five-for and operating on a pitch suited to his style of play.

"He [Paterson] reminds me of Vernon Philander. It's really hard to score off him, and he's just landing it on the spot consistently. So, yes, there's a lot of hard work to put in, but yeah, we are willing to do that."

Sri Lanka also have fond memories of a successful chase at this venue. They hunted down 198 with eight wickets in hand five years ago. While that may sound like a doddle, Sri Lanka resumed the third day on 60 for 2 after 19 wickets fells on the second day.

Kusal Mendis, who is in this team too, scored an unbeaten 84 off 110 balls to seal a series win. That can't be done this time, but Sri Lanka could square the contest 1-all and keep themselves in the running for the WTC final.

If they lose one of their three remaining Tests, including this one, in this cycle, they will be depending on several other results to go their way. Their last series of the cycle is against Australia at home early next year.