South Africa have moved to the brink of victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test match in Port Elizabeth, but they still require five wickets from the final three sessions.

The Proteas began the day on 351-5 and it was not long before they declared on 406-6, with Faf de Plessis (67*) and Quinton de Kock (69) ensuring that they set their opponents a target of 488.

Sri Lanka started well as Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva put on 87 for the opening stand but as they were dismissed for 43 and 48 respectively, their team slipped to 118-3.

Kusal Mendis steadied the ship with 58 from 90 deliveries but his wicket led to Sri Lanka being dependent on Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal.

Chandimal went for eight but Mathews made it through to the close of play still unbeaten, and he will need to build on his current score of 58 if his team are to have a chance of hitting the remaining 248 runs which they need for victory.