South Africa gave Bangladesh a dose of their own medicine, putting them on a spin to record a crushing 52-run win in the first Twenty20 International in Dhaka on Sunday. Bangladesh had prepared a turning pitch for the Proteas as expectedly and appeared to have gotten some successes restricting the formidable batting line up of the visiting side to a modest 148-4.But Bangladesh’s batsmen made a mess replying to the target playing injudiciously from the beginning to be dismissed for a two-digit score of 96 runs on a familiar surface.
Off-break bowler JP Duminy made the best use of the wicket to grab 2-11 that broke the backbone of Bangladesh’s innings and left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso and medium pacer David Weise did the rest.
Wicket nevertheless had little role to play in most of the dismissals starting from Tamim Iqbal’s gloving off a Kyle Abbott’s down the leg delivery and Soumya Sarkar’s miscued pull off Kagiso Rabada that left Bangladesh 2-13.
Sakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim looked to have recovered well before throwing away their all good works.
The Tigers were going well despite the early jolt and reached their 50 almost with equal pace. It was then expected that the batsmen would rotate the strikes and wait for the odd ball to hit a boundary or two.
But Mushfiq did the opposite, attempting a slog off Duminy in the bowler’s first over to pay a heavy price. As the David Miller settled underneath the ball to grab the catch at deep midwicket to dismiss the right-hander for 17, he also grabbed the match.
It was the beginning of end for the Tigers, who soon collapsed from 2-50 to 5-57 losing the momentum all of a sudden. Sabbir Rahman was the victim of a spectacular catch of Quinton de Kock but not before he decided to play a reverse sweep against the need of the hour.
Wicketkeeper de Kock had anticipated the shot and changed his position quickly to take a brilliant reflex-catch to get rid of Bangladesh’s Glen Maxwell for four.
If the Tigers still had any hope they were gone quickly as Phangiso joined Duminy to take the wicket of Nasir Hossain, who could manage only one. The triple blow inevitably slowed down Bangladesh’s run rate and Sakib started feeling pressure immediately.
He had still the chance to follow the example of South Africa’s Faf du Plessis, who almost single-handedly guided South Africa to a challenging total with his unbeaten 79 off 61 balls.
But Sakib showed he is not du Plessis dragging his feet to a trap by giving a catch at fine leg off Weise for 27.
With the exception of du Plessis, who hit eight boundaries in his sixth Twenty20 fifty, South African batsmen also did nothing better than their Bangladeshi counterparts.
Bangladesh started with spinners from both ends and struck almost immediately with left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny claiming the prized scalp of AB de Villiers in the very first over for two.
De Villiers opened the innings only the second time in his Twenty20 international career and conceded four dots before he picked up Mashrafee bin Murtaza at cover.
De Kock tried to break the shackle with a six off Nasir over cover but soon became a catch of Liton off the same bowler at point for 12.
Sunny returned for his second spell to break a 46-run third wicket partnership between du Plessis and Duminy as Nasir took a well-judged catch at the deep to dismiss the latter for 18.
Sakib trapped David Miller leg-before for one but du Plessis added 58 runs in an unbroken fifth wicket stand with Rilee Rossouw (31 not out) to take South Africa to a respectable total.
-With New Age input
