As Farhaan Behardien fiercely drove Rubel Hossain towards sweeper cover for two runs in the penultimate ball of their innings, South Africa completed their 1000 runs against Bangladesh in the series.
Behardien hit Rubel a boundary in the next ball to take the home side to 369-6 – their highest ever score against Bangladesh – which took their total run in the series to 1004.
In doing so the Proteas became the first team to score 1000 or more runs in a three-match bilateral series against Bangladesh, making it as a complete nightmare for the visiting bowlers.
South African openers reached 282-0 in the first one-dayer to complete 10-wicket win before they became the first side to score more than 300 runs twice in a bilateral series against Bangladesh with scores of 353-6 and 369-6 in the next two matches respectively at Paarl and East London.
In their history spanning over three decades Bangladeshi bowlers never looked so ordinary in a bilateral series despite being at the receiving end on quite a few occasions.
Before this series their last worst performance as a bowling unit came in 2011 when Bangladeshi bowlers conceded 863 runs against Australia at home in three matches in 2011.
Led by Michael Clarke, Australia scored 270-7 in the first one-dayer before Shane Watson’s unbeaten 185 with the then world record 15 sixes helped the visitors chasing down Bangladesh’s 229 in 26 overs in the second match losing only one wicket.
The Aussies wrapped up the series with scoring emphatic 361-8 in the final match to add more humiliations on demoralised Bangladesh’s bowlers.
The Australians played all three matches at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium, which hosted six World Cup matches just before the series, denying Bangladesh time to change the nature of wicket.
During the Tiger’s visit to New Zealand earlier this year, Bangladesh bowlers found themselves clueless to Kiwi batsmen for quite sometimes and conceded 831 runs in the three-match one-day series.
The home side scored 341-7, 251 and 239-2 respectively in three one-dayers although Bangladeshi bowlers showed some promises in the second match which was totally missing in the South Africa series.
Bangladesh also conceded 829 runs against England in 2010 NatWest series, but they won one game in that series, which did not make their figure looking that worse.
But unlike New Zealand tour and NatWest series, Bangladesh failed to compete in any of three matches in South Africa, making it easily the worst ever bilateral series they were involved.
One consolation could be 12 wickets that they have taken in the series.
Bangladesh did worst than this in terms of picking up wickets in three-match series and they did it twice against South Africa among others.
Bangladesh’s worst ever wicket-taking performance came against South Africa at home in 2008 when they could take only seven wickets in three matches. They also had to content with nine wickets against England at home in 2003.
In a three-match away series, Bangladesh took just nine wickets against New Zealand in 2007, 10 wickets against Australia in 2003 and 11 wickets against South Africa in 2002.
It was not completely a bad series for every Bangladeshi bowler as Rubel Hossain picked up five wickets in three matches. His feats include the wickets of AB de Villiers, one of modern day greats, twice in the series something which is worth cherishing for every bowler.
-With New Age input
