Cape Town — Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer destroyed Bangladesh’s top order leaving the Proteas as favourites to claim 1-0 lead in the series after day in which the touring team’s fighting qualities proved endearing once more.
Russell Domingo, the Tigers’ head coach wore a proud smile as he clapped his team off the field after they’d bowled South Africa out and left themselves what on paper was an achievable target. Within half an hour Domingo’s smile was gone, replaced by a look of concern. In six overs all the hard and courageous work of the fourth day had disappeared amidst a furious response from the home team’s two spinners.
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First Harmer had Shadman Islam beautifully caught at slip by Keegan Petersen for a duck, then Maharaj, who went wicketless in the first innings, bowled Bangladesh’s first innings centurion, Mahmudul Hasan Joy through the gate with a ‘slider’ for four and a few balls later he trapped Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque lbw for just two.
In both instances Maharaj roared his delight charging away from his teammates, perhaps an illustration of his frustration at not picking up a wicket in the first innings, while Harmer stole all the limelight with four.
Until that last half an hour Bangladesh would have been delighted with their efforts.
Spin twins Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj struck late in the day to leave Bangladesh on 11/3, needing 263 more runs to win tomorrow.
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 3, 2022
At various stages of the match they have proved that the fighting spirit in their group is not just talk, but they can show it through deed too. By the start of play on Sunday, South Africa should have known that, but if they thought they’d landed a psychological blow in the first session by scoring 99 runs and losing just one wicket, then in the afternoon, they were given another reminder that they were very much mistaken.
Bangladesh with one of its three seamers, Taskin Ahmed, nursing a shoulder injury, stayed in touch with the Proteas, picking up four wickets and restricting the scoring to just 52 runs in the afternoon session.
While there’d been some costly dropped catches in the morning, in the afternoon their fielding was inspired with Yasir Ali and Shadnam Islam producing a pair of sublime catches and substitute fielder Nurul Sohan running out Simon Harmer with a throw from 55 metres that hit the base of the only stump he could aim at from the deep cover boundary.
DAY 4 | STUMPS 🔴
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) April 3, 2022
Bad light brings Day 4️⃣ to an early close with @bangladeshtigers on 1️⃣1️⃣/3️⃣ and the #Proteas defending 2️⃣6️⃣3️⃣ runs for victory.
Keshav Maharaj 2️⃣/7️⃣
Simon Harmer 1️⃣/4️⃣#SAvBAN #BePartOfIt | @Betway_za pic.twitter.com/aRjlQi0O0R
Dean Elgar’s 64 was the highest score for the Proteas who suffered a horrible collapse from 115/1 shortly after lunch to be all out midway through the final session with a lead of 273.
Once again Mehidy Hasan was outstanding, providing control at one end, which allowed the seamers to rotate from the other side. Perhaps recognising an opportunity to push for victory with South Africa’s batters playing tentatively, Taskin bowled through the pain of whatever was ailing his shoulder delivering 11 overs, getting the ball to reverse and picking up two wickets.
Mehidy bowled a marathon spell of 35 overs conceding 85 runs and claiming three wickets, but from a South African perspective seeing so many balls spinning sharply would have helped the moods of their spinners.
It was still somewhat surprising that they were given the new ball, but one cannot fault the outcome and as the teams left the field, there was only one that would have felt they were capable of winning the match.
SCORECARD
Day 4 of 5: bad light stopped play
South Africa 367 and 204
Bangladesh 298 and 11/3