- 1st ODI, Bangladesh tour of South Africa
Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla blitzed a century each, became South Africa’s most prolific ODI pair of all-time and scripted their biggest win by 10 wickets in ODI history. South Africa’s mockery of a 279-run target followed Bangladesh’s own record-setting after they chose to bat in the first ODI. Mushfiqur Rahim became the first Bangladesh batsman to score a century against South Africa in any format and led his team to their highest total against this opposition. But those efforts barely challenged the hosts.
On a flat track in Kimberley, where anything under 300 was considered sub-par, Bangladesh were at least 50 runs short. Mushfiqur did his bit, but found scant assistance. Imrul Kayes was the only other player to score more than 30 against a weakened South African attack.
The home pack were already plagued by absentees through injury and lost a further 65 caps when Wayne Parnell could not be considered for selection after picking up a groin strain. Dane Paterson was handed a debut. It was a baptism of fire for Paterson, who conceded at 7.66 to the over and went wicketless after being tasked with sharing the new ball with Kagiso Rabada.
As the most experienced quick, Rabada took on the task of leading the attack. He produced an aggressive six-over new-ball spell, in which he took 1 for 11 and then returned to take 3 for 25 in three overs at the end.
In between that, South Africa’s second-string seamers operated around Imran Tahir, but did not present much of a challenge. Paterson and Andile Phehlukwayo did not have the pace threaten Bangladesh while Dwaine Pretorius fared decently when replicating Rabada’s short-ball tactics – though he leaned more towards slower bouncers.
While Bangladesh cashed in on the scoring opportunities Paterson and Phehlukwayo presented, they had too few substantial partnerships. Only Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur (59 runs) and Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah (69) sharing in stands of over 50. Even though South Africa did not apply sustained pressure, the incisions they made counted.
After Shakib became the fastest player to the double of 5000 ODI runs and 200 wickets, he fell to crafty captaincy. Faf du Plessis kept a slip in place when Tahir was bowling and Shakib edged a googly into Hashim Amla’s hands. Tahir was effective in the middle overs and made a nuisance of himself to the Bangladesh batsmen.
He had an lbw appeal against Mushfiqur when he was on 41 and tried to run a googly down to third man. Mushfiqur was hit on the back pad flap outside the line and South Africa did not review. In Tahir’s next over, Mahmudullah missed a sweep and was hit on the pad. South Africa reviewed but the impact was outside the line. – Cricinfo
