Debutant Lutho Sipamla claimed three wickets in quick succession on day two of the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday as South Africa finally bowled out Sri Lanka for 396/9.

When lunch was called, the Proteas were sitting on 45/0 after 11 overs with openers Dean Elgar on 15 and Aiden Markram on 27 and still trailing Sri Lanka by 351runs.

Having struggled on the first day where he got only one wicket, the 22-year-old Sipamla dished out an improved performance to clean up the Sri Lankan tail of Kasun Rajitha , Vishwa Fernando and Lahiru Kumara.

At some stage on a hat-trick during the first session, Sipamla ended the first innings with figures of 4/75 after 16 overs. He was followed by all-rounder Wiaan Mulder with 3/69 in his 20 overs.

The other contributors for the Proteas with ball were Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje who ended their first innings shift with a wicket apiece, with spinner Keshav Maharaj ending empty-handed.

For the visitors, Dinesh Chandimal was their top scorer with 85 off 161, a knock that included 11 boundaries, and the other notable contributors to their scoreboard board were Dhananjaya de Silva (79) and Dasun Shanaka (66).

Sri Lanka have been dealt a huge blow as top order batsman De Silva, who retired hurt on day one with a thigh strain, was unable to bat again and he has been ruled him out of the series.

Despite De Silva’s unavailability, the visitors managed to add 56 runs to their overnight score in just an hour of play and they also put together their highest innings score in South Africa.

Sipamla’s demolition job started when he removed Rajitha and Fernando from successive balls in the 94th over before he wrapped up the tail with the wicket of Kumara.