"If you see the surface, it's dry. It will be more of a spin friendly surface," the 40-year-old veteran spinner said ahead of the final Test starting Friday in Colombo. "We have Dilruwan (Perera) and if we require we also have Dhananjaya (de Silva). He couldn't bowl in Galle, but he is certainly ready to bowl during games," Herath told reporters.

Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis top-scored with a gritty 49 while paceman Kagiso Rabada impressed with four wickets in Sri Lanka's first innings. Rabada, who returned figures of 4-50, was ably supported by Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander in their first innings to bowl out the hosts for 287 runs, more than half of which were notched up by Sri Lankan opener Dimuth Karnaratne.

Du Plessis said his team will rely on their pace bowlers to come back hard at the hosts. "If it doesn't rain, then we will have a dangerous weapon in our fast bowlers. Once again we have to make a call as to whether we are playing three seamers or two spinners," Du Plessis said.

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Du Plessis added that South Africa was aiming to conquer local conditions in their bid to overtake India -- about to embark on a five-Test series in England -- and become the number one side. "It is never easy winning away from home. When you are coming to the sub-continent, drawing a series is as good as winning a series," he said.

"It's tough and that's what the best teams do. We need to get to that number one position in Test cricket." The next visitors to Sri Lanka will be England in October.

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