Tea: Day 4
South Africa picked up three wickets, missed two others and lost fast bowler Morne Morkel in a dramatic afternoon’s play that saw also saw 52 minutes of play lost due to a brief thunderstorm.
Bangladesh were on 49/3 at tea with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim on 16 .
South Africa had declared its second innings closed on 247/6 a lead of 423 leaving themselves just over four sessions to try and win the first Test.
They will have been monitoring the weather too; following that post lunch delay another thunderstorm has been forecast for this region later on Sunday, while Monday is likely to see intermittent showers as well.
So they would have been pleased with the double blows Morkel struck in his first over when he removed Tamim Iqbal with the fourth ball of Bangladesh’s second innings, the left hander appearing to misjudge the movement back into him, with the ball clipping the top of off-stump.
Two balls later, Mominul Haque, who top scored with 77 in the first innings, was adjudged lbw by umpire Chris Gaffaney, but replays suggested that had the Bangladeshis referred the decision to the television official, the ball was missing the leg-stump.
Morkel knocked back Mushfiqur’s middle stump to start his second over, but after checking replays, no part of his front foot was behind popping crease. It’s the 14th time Morkel has missed a wicket because of a ‘no ball.’
Three overs later the South Africans missed another opportunity when skipper Faf du Plessis dropped a simple catch moving to his right at second slip, allowing Imrul Kayes, on 6 at the time a reprieve off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada.
Those chances may prove costly if the weather forecasts turn out to be true and time is lost over the last day and half of this Test.
Keshav Maharaj, who bowled a lovely little spell before the break, getting the ball to spin and bounce from the rough, eventually picked up the third wicket when he found the outside edge of Imrul’s bat, with Quinton de Kock, taking a good low catch. Imrul scored 32, hitting five fours.
South Africa batted on an hour longer than seemed necessary earlier, taking the lead passed 400 with Bavuma (71) and Du Plessis (81) making half-centuries.