What a difference a year makes. In 2016, South Africa left the Bullring in Johannesburg licking their wounds after England completed a demolition job over a side stuck in transition. In 2017, they were the ones who inflicted the wounds on their useless opposition.

It took just three days for South Africa to clinch an innings and 118-run win. Two of the team’s batsmen – Hashim Amla and JP Duminy – scored more individually than the whole Sri Lanka team managed in their first innings. The win comes on the back of two equally comprehensive victories in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and will help South Africa continue their trajectory up in the world Test rankings.

The pain for Sri Lanka is far from over. There is still an ODI and T20 series to come and if the South Africans play the way they did in the one-day series against Australia, which they won 5-0 on home soil last year, the Proteas are on course for a golden summer – a complete contrast to 12 months ago.

Their next task will be tours to New Zealand and England, and preparations will start in earnest as soon as the pyjama cricket is out of the way.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the whitewash over Sri Lanka

As easy is AB…D.

AB de Villiers has not donned his Test whites since South Africa were thumped by England last year. You can whisper it, but South Africa hasn’t really missed him. Make no mistake, De Villiers is still one of the best players in the world, he’s the kind of player people pay good money to watch, but is it really a surprise that nobody really knows how De Villiers is feeling about his future in Test cricket?

At the post-match press conference on Saturday, both coach Russell Domingo and captain Faf Du Plessis said they’d not really talked to De Villiers about it. Now, considering all the other communication misdemeanours of the last few weeks, that might not sound too great. But maybe it just shows that South Africa were quite happy to just get on with things instead of worrying about things beyond their control.

How the team will balance the middle order should De Villiers return to the side has been much debated, but considering he has previously spoken of “managing his workload” (prior to being appointed fly-by captain), De Villiers might very well choose to make things easy for everyone and hang up his Test spikes. That would be a loss for the global game, but might not be the worst thing for the development of the South African Test side.

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

It started with the win over New Zealand, started blossoming with the double whitewash over Australia, and by the time South Africa completed a clean sweep over Sri Lanka, their happiness was in full bloom.

It’s always easier to sing when you’re winning, but for the first time in quite some time, this team looks really happy. Even with the off-field distractions of the Kolpakalypse, the players looked completely unfussed. In fact, they looked as if they might break into a Pharrell Williams song, complete with their own improvised choreography, at any point. There is a swagger and razzmatazz about this team that has been absent for a long time. If you plonked them on a reality TV show, the judges would say they’ve got the “X Factor”.

Bigger Tests are yet to come and how they respond to that pressure will reveal a lot more than sweeping aside such hapless opposition, but considering how they’ve responded to “Mint Gate” and “Kolpak Gate”, they seem well equipped to deal with any challenges their adventures might throw at them. Even the bonhomie cuddles when players are taking superb catches, the kind of matey-mates camaraderie that can so easily look forced, now appears as if it’s the thing that was missing from this side all along.

Kyle Who?

Losing Kyle Abbott from the attack seemed like a blow a week ago. He is an immensely skilful bowler, a workhorse who will run in all day and give his captain everything he’s got. But the way in which Wayne Parnell and Duanne Olivier eased into the team has been balm for the bruise.

Despite much consternation about the apparent “poor standard” of South Africa’s domestic cricket, both Parnell and Olivier made the transition without much trouble. Sri Lanka’s batsmen might have been there for the taking, but both men bowled will skill and, most important, plans. Parnell might finally become the player selectors believed he could be, and as a southpaw option, he adds an extra dimension to the attack.

Credit to the support staff

While the rookies have honed their skills in the domestic game, the management team deserve credit by the bucketload for the way in which they have facilitated these transitions. Neil McKenzie’s work with the batsmen has clearly paid off while Charl Langeveldt seems to be coming into his own as a bowling coach. All of this under Russell Domingo’s tutelage. Consistency will be the key in more challenging conditions, but the coaches have put the foundations in place from which they can build something really special.

Hapless, hopeless, helpless Sri Lanka

Spare a thought for Angelo Mathews and Sri Lanka. The captain said that this loss was his “worst defeat” as captain. The numbers make for grim reading. Just three 50s among the crop of players. Nobody averaged more than 30.00 with the bat. The highest score anyone could muster was 59. With the ball, the picture doesn’t look much better. There’s no bowling average below 26.00. South Africa had three players average over 40.00, three over 50.00 and one over 60.00 with the bat. Four bowlers averaged below 20.00, three of them below 15.00. But numbers don’t tell the full story of just how comprehensively South Africa decimated the opposition. For that, we recommend Cricinfo’s Andre Fernando’s piece, which brilliantly captures the atmosphere at the cauldron that is the Bullring. DM

Photo: Hashim Amla of South Africa during the International Test Series 2016/17 match between South Africa and Sri Lanka at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on the 14 January 2017 ©Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix