Centurion — Bangladesh claimed a major slice of history on Wednesday when they won a series in South Africa for the first time.
The Tigers, roared on by a large group of enthusiastic expats at SuperSport Park, delivered an inspired performance led by the magnificent Taskin Ahmed to crush the home team and claim a thoroughly deserved victory.
For the Proteas there will be plenty of soul searching. They were inconsistent with bat and ball, and generally poor in the field, continuing a trend in South African cricket that has become glaringly apparent this summer and needs to be urgently addressed.
The bowlers, after failing to make an early breakthrough in the first ODI, lacked the necessary strategies and execution to lock down the Bangladeshi batters and in the last match the batting fell apart in the face of the tornado created by Taskin.
The Bangladeshis shook off whatever mental shortcomings there may have been after they got thumped at the Wanderers, and played superbly in the third match. The weathered an early storm from the South African openers, Janneman Malan and and Quinton de Kock, with Mehidy Hassan, cleverly tempting the precocious left-hander into an aggressive stroke in the seventh over.
The match turned when Taskin switched to the Hennops River End and took advantage of some extra bounce to induce a collapse that saw South Africa lose four wickets for 17 runs in 27 balls. Taskin removed Malan for the innings’ top score, 39, with a ball that bounced a little bit more than the batter anticipated and also left the right handed off the pitch leaving Malan, who’d shuffled out of his crease, edging behind to an ecstatic Mushfiqur Rahim.
Bangladesh skipper Tamim Iqbal, who admitted he would have batted as well had the coin gone in his favour, cleverly managed his quick bowlers from the more favourable Hennops River End, with Shofriful, who’d replaced Taskin, claiming the crucial wicket of the in-form Rassie van der Dussen.
As had been the case with Malan, Van der Dussen was also deceived by the extra bounce, and closed the face of his bat early, with the ball looping off the back of it to Mahidy at point.
Taskin returned to pick up three more wickets, registering his second five wicket haul and finishing with 5/35 in nine overs. “I’m just very happy,” Taskin said in an interview with SuperSport after the innings. “I just tried to stick to my processes and the basics. There were a few balls that bounced a bit more, but I stuck with my plans, bowled my lines and lengths and then tried to mix it up with a few ‘cross seam’ deliveries.”
Tamim Iqbal, then made 87 off 84 balls hitting 14 fours, the 52nd half century of his career, to make mincemeat of the chase. He shared an opening partnership of 127 with Litton Das, who made 48
There’ll be many shocked by the outcome and understandably so, given the history between the two teams, but it is worth remembering, that this year’s Bangladesh side is very different from previous sides that have toured South Africa.
They have enormous self-belief, off the back of success at home, but also the enormous amounts of experience they’ve picked up over the years. Four of the team that played in this series, including Tamim have over 200 ODIs to their name. South Africa’s most capped ODI player is De Kock who played his 129th match on Wednesday.
Bangladesh proved why they are currently top of the ICC Super League table. South Africa meanwhile, who claimed they weren’t playing the log much attention, will certainly do so now, with automatic qualification for the World Cup no longer a certainty.
SCORECARD
South Africa 154 all out
Bangladesh 156/1
Bangladesh won by 9 wickets