Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar and Lutho Sipamla shined for the home team.
The match which started at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Boxing Day, saw Sri Lanka elected to bat first after winning the toss. They had windy first innings as their batsmen scored at over 4 rpo throughout the innings.
Dinesh Chandimal (85), Dhananjaya de Silva (79), Dasun Shanaka (66), and Niroshan Dickwella (49) plundered runs at will as Sri Lanka posted 396 runs in just 96 overs in their first innings. Debutant Proteas pacer Lutho Sipamla returned figures of 4/76, while Wiaan Mulder picked 3/69.
South Africa decided to dig deep into their first innings, knowing that Sri Lanka was missing quite a few players due to injuries including Dhananjaya de Silva, fast bowlers Lahiru Kumara and Kasun Rajitha, and even debutant Wanindu Hasaranga was off the field for quite a while, before returning.
South Africa was bowled out of 621 runs, giving them a lead of 225 runs.
The home side knew Sri Lanka was short on batting and this was evident as apart from Kusal Perera (64), Dinesh Chandimal (25), and Wanindu Hasaranga, none of the other batsmen were able to negotiate the South African pacers.
Lungi Ngidi (2/38), Anrich Nortje (2/47), Wiaan Mulder (2/39), and Lutho Sipamla (2/24) split the wickets evenly between them as South Africa won the first Test by an innings and 45 runs.
BRIEF SCORES:
SL 396 (D CHANDIMAL 85; L SIPAMLA 4/76) & 180 (K PERERA 64; L SIPAMLA 2/24) lost to SA 621 (F DU PLESSIS 199, D ELGAR 95; W HASARANGA 4/171) by an innings and 45 runs