Like many other cricket pundits South African cricket team is not labeling their massive defeat against Bangladesh in their second one-day international on Sunday as an upset instead hailed their opponents for a brilliant performance. For many years whenever Bangladesh win a match or two there is a tendency to demean their achievement and the complacency of the bigger teams is often blamed for it.
But the visiting Proteas’ blew away this theory and gave credit to the hosts for their tenacity and execution on the day.
‘We weren’t surprised at all,’ said the South African all-rounder Farhaan Behardien after the Sunday’s defeat.
‘The way they have been playing in the last couple of months against Pakistan and India has been good, it was not a surprise at all,’ said the South African, indicating the back-to-back series wins of the Tigers against the Asian neighbours.
‘We know what they are capable of. We were off the mark today, they started really well with a few early wickets,’ Behardien added.
The Tigers, who reached their first ever quarter-final of the World Cup early in the year, also made a record of winning 10 consecutive matches at home en route to seal the Pakistan and Indian series.
The Sunday’s win was their 17th at home in bilateral series since 2012, only second to Sri Lanka during this period, who won 21 matches.
Behardien who scored 36, rallied the tail to take the Proteas to a respectable score of 160, a total he says the team was hopeful of defending.
However, it was their lowest score against Bangladesh and ultimately they conceded their second loss to the Tigers after they faced the ignominy back in 2007 in the Caribbean.
‘We are always hopeful, no matter if we score 100 or 350, said Behardien, indicating that they were in the attacking mood during defending the paltry score.
Facing the defeat, the Proteas were also losing their temper at times, which was clearly visible in Rilee Rossouw’s attempt of shoving batsman Tamim Iqbal.
Tamim was walking off the ground after dragging a wide ball of Kagiso Rabada on to his stump before a dejected Rossouw, who earlier contributed just four off 24 balls, gave the left-hander a shoulder barge.
But all desperate attempts of the South Africans went in vain as Tigers reached home in just 27.4 overs, sparing 134 balls and seven wickets.
That sort of aggression is the key behind success of Tigers’ recent success and Beherdien also admitted that by saying ‘they got a fast start, despite the two early wickets, but Soumya played really well.’
-With New Age input
