South Africa thrash Bangladesh

South Africa thrash Bangladesh

A shambolic batting display from Bangladesh allowed South Africa to thrash them by six wickets in both team’s penultimate Group 2 match in the Super 12 of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Bangladesh batsmen had no answers against the hostile Proteas pace attack as Anrich Nortje took 3-8 and Kagiso Rabada claimed 3-20 to bowl out Bangladesh for 84 in 18.2 overs, their third lowest total in T20 World Cups.

Mahedi Hasan made 27 off 25 while Liton Das and Shamim Hossain made 24 and 11 respectively while the remaining eight batters lost their wickets for single digit scores.

Mahedi Hasan (27 off 25 balls), Liton Das (24 off 36 balls) and Shamim Hossain (11 off 20 balls) were the only Bangladesh batters to get into double digits after they were asked to bat first in a testing pitch.

South African batters had work hard to score the runs but a captain’s knock from Temba Bavuma, who remained unbeaten on 31 off 28 balls, guided them to 86-4 in 13.3 overs.

Bangladesh pace attack, which was missing Mustafizur Rahman who was replaced by Nasum Ahmed in the match, tried to breath in some life in the contest with Taskin Ahmed claiming 2-18 and Shoriful Islam conceding just 15 runs in his four overs without any success but it was nowhere near enough to defend the meagre total.

With the defeat, all mathematical chances of Bangladesh playing the semi-final has disappeared as they remain dead last in their group with four defeats in as many matches.

South Africa, on the other hand, now have three wins from four matches and are well in contention for a semi-final berth.

Rabada jolted Bangladesh’s top-order, which is missing Shakib Al Hasan as the all-rounder is out of the tournament with a hamstring injury, with three strikes in space of five deliveries and the Tigers never recovered from that.

He dismissed Mohammad Naim (nine) and Soumya Sarkar (0) in the final two deliveries of the fourth over and then made Mushfiqur Rahim (0) give a catch to Reeza Hendricks in the third delivery of the sixth over to leave Bangladesh stuttering at 24-3.

South African bowlers didn’t allow Bangladesh to put forth any partnership to repair the damage as Nortje dismissed Mahmudullah (three) with a sharp bouncer and Afif Hossain, inexplicably, heaved at his very first delivery only to get beaten all ends up by Dwaine Pretorius.

Liton, who was watching the procession of batter from the other end, was trapped leg before wicket in left-arm leg spinner Tabraiz Shamsi’s first over and Shamim, who is playing his first match in the tournament, also lost his wicket to the same bowler in an attempt to break the shackles.

Mahedi provided some late entertainment with a couple of fours and a six but that wasn’t enough to push their total to triple digits.

Nortje dismissed Mahedi and Nasum Ahmed (0), who has been picked in place of Mustafizur Rahman, in the first two balls of the 19th over to end Bangladesh’s misery.

Taskin bowled with a lot of vigour in the powerplay overs, dismissing Reeza Hendricks (four) and Aiden Markram (0) while Mahedi Hasan also bowled Quinton de Kock (16) to reduce South Africa 33-3 in six overs.

But once Taskin and Shoriful’s eight overs ended, where they conceded just 33 runs, it was easy going for the Proteas.

Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen added 47 runs for the fourth wicket and after the latter’s dismissal for 22, David Miller (five not out) came to the crease and finished the job with a four.