By Suneer Chowdhary
Bangladesh needed a sterling, almost a stirring batting performance to beat South Africa in their chase of 285. They needed to bat like how they had done in the first game of the tournament against India, instead, the team for the West Indies game turned up again today.
Published: Mar 19, 2011, 03:31 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 19, 2011, 03:31 PM (IST)
South Africa wallop Bangladesh by 206 runs at Mirpur
By Suneer Chowdhary
Mirpur: Mar 19, 2011
Bangladesh needed a sterling, almost a stirring batting performance to beat South Africa in their chase of 285. They needed to bat like how they had done in the first game of the tournament against India, instead, the team for the West Indies game turned up again today. 285 was never going to be easy despite the absence of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
That they would surrender in an abject fashion like this would have been least expected by the full house at the Shere Bangla in Mirpur. That only one of the batsmen got to double figures almost told a story of how Bangladesh did not deserve to enter the quarter-finals after dishing out such exhibitions with alarming alacrity.
South Africa tried to counter the Bangladeshi opening left-handed batmen with the off-spin of Johan Botha but it was Lonwabo Tsotsobe who drew first blood. An edge off a bouncer was refused by the umpire and the referral saw Tamim Iqbal been given out. 14 for 1 soon became two wickets down for the addition of another run when Imrul Kayes decided that he had had enough of defending and allowed the ball to pass through. It hit the stumps and Tsotsobe had a couple of them.
Junaid Siddique was the third batsman to walk back for 2, lbw to Botha, before Tsotsobe had his third in the next over – Shahriar Nafees bowled for 5 and Bangladesh were 21 for 4.
There was never going to be any recovery from this position and apart from a 30 from their skipper Shakib Al Hasan, the rest of the side went down in a heap. Mushfiqur Rahim (3) and Shafiul Islam (0) were both claimed by Peterson, to go with his wicket of Shakib and last man Naeem Islam as Bangladesh were bowled out for 78.
South Africa were off to a flying start before the opening pair of Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla established control of the proceedings. Smith missed his half-century, Amla got there and got out but that did not put any spanners in their work.
Jacques Kallis, who hasn’t been in the best of touches in the tournament so far, gauged the track to perfection and got to 69 (76 balls) and in partnership with Faf du Plessis, ensured that the score of more than 250 would be reached.
Theirs was a 82-run stand for the fourth wicket that came off 87 balls and laid the foundation for a final assault in the last few overs. 52 came off the Batting Powerplay while the last ten cost Bangladesh 92 runs despite the regular fall of wickets. Peterson ended with 22 off only nine balls and on a sluggish pitch, the total seemed to more than par for the course.
It proved to be 206 runs more than what Bangladesh could manage.
Brief Scores: South Africa 284 for 8 in 50 overs (Jacques Kallis 69, Faff du PLessis 52, Hashim Amla 51, Graeme Smith 45; Rubel Hossain 3 for 56, Shakib Al Hasan 2 for 46) bt Bangladesh 78 all out in 28 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 30; Robin Peterson 4 for 12, Lonwabo Tsotsobe 3 for 14) by 206 runs.
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
Man of the Match: Lonwabo Tsotsobe.
Pictures © Getty Images
