Bangladesh beat South Africa by 21 runs at the Kennington Oval in London on Sunday. With this, Bangladesh have shaken up a few pre-tournament notions about how this World Cup is going to pan out. Asian teams have struggled at this World Cup so far, but Bangladesh put up their highest ODI total against South Africa.
Bangladesh beat South Africa by 21 runs at the Kennington Oval in London on Sunday. With this, Bangladesh have shaken up a few pre-tournament notions about how this World Cup is going to pan out. Asian teams have struggled at this World Cup so far, but Bangladesh put up their highest ODI total against South Africa.
TOSS: South Africa captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to field first. Going by the low scores that have been seen in the World Cup so far and the fact that Tamim Iqbal was not at full fitness after being hit in the nets on Friday, South Africa might have thought they would try to run through the Bangladesh top order early on.
FIRST INNINGS: Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan put together a record partnership as Bangladesh reached 330 for six wickets to set South Africa a formidable victory target. The pair scored 142 runs for the third wicket to notch up Bangladesh’s highest World Cup partnership. This was their highest ODI score. Mahmudullah (46*) came up with an attacking blitz towards the end.
SECOND INNINGS: South Africa got the chase off to a positive start, with the first blow coming courtesy a mid-pitch confusion and Quinton de Kock’s subsequent run out. However, they kept losing regular wickets, even though several batsmen got good starts. Three of their batsmen – Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen and Jean Paul Duminy – were out in their 40s.
GAME CHANGER: The 142-run third wicket partnership between senior pros Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib al Hasan was the partnership which turned the momentum of the match in the Asian side’s favour. The veterans led the way in the match, perhaps foreshadowing how some of the youngsters can play their parts later in the World Cup campaign.
CAPTAIN SPEAK:
Faf du Plessis: Obviously today didn’t go according to plan. Lungi getting injured at the start wasn’t ideal. 330 wasn’t par, and all in all it wasn’t ideal from us. The thinking at the toss was assuming that there would be a lot of pace and bounce against a sub-continental side. But in hindsight, we would have changed that. To go for that many runs, even without Lungi, wasn’t ideal. At the 40-over mark, I looked up at the screen and we were at the same stage, but we lost it in the last five overs. It is definitely not getting easier for us, we are firing at about 50-60 percent today and it shows that even Bangladesh can beat us with only that.
Mashrafe Mortaza: The first match always sets the tone. We won in Ireland and that helped us set the tone here. After the toss, I had a doubt whether to bat or to bowl first. But it was a used wicket and the batsmen batted really well, especially Soumya at the start. Mushy batted really well, so did Shakib and then Mahmudullah finished it really well. I knew it was a good wicket to bat on and we knew that to bowl in the right areas to get wickets. The spinners bowled really well and then set it up for Fizz and Saifuddin. A big crowd, and hopefully we are expecting them to come back in our next match.
BRIEF SCORES: BAN 330/6 (50.0) | SA 309/8 (50)