“Not being able to take wickets was always going to make it tough for us. They always had an in batter who could take the risk when needed.” – Temba Bavuma
Telford Vice | Cape Town
ON Friday’s evidence, South Africa might be able to do without their first-choice pace attack after all. The way they bowled in the first ODI against Bangladesh in Centurion suggested they aren’t all they’ve been cracked up to be. Perhaps, it will be whispered darkly up and down the land, the IPL is welcome to them.
Of course, cricket doesn’t work like that. Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen are, along with the currently sidelined Anrich Nortjé, South Africa’s best fast bowlers by some distance. That they fell prey to an off day can’t and won’t change that.
But their performance in this match will make their compatriots feel better — and perhaps even allow themselves a spiteful smile — about the sad fact that they will, according to one side of this saga, desert the national cause after this series to chase money in a meaningless jamboree in India, and so miss the coming Tests against Bangladesh. The other side of the story is that CSA will never be able to pay their best players what IPL franchise owners can and do. And who can say international cricket carries more meaning and gravitas than some T20 circus?
Not that you would have thought, early on, that things would pan out the way they did. Ngidi opened with a scoreless over to Tamim Iqbal, and Rabada’s first was going the same way until Litton Das took two off the last delivery. It wasn’t so much that South Africa’s new-ball pair looked threatening as much as Bangladesh’s openers, maybe mindful of facing them on a cracked Highveld pitch, bringing more caution than required to the situation.
But the last ball of Ngidi’s next over hinted at what was to come. Tamim unleashed a meaty cut that sailed over an unusually short square boundary for six. It was the first of 10 overs in which the sixth delivery was hit for four or six. In another five overs, the first ball was hammered for four. All of the seamers used — including Andile Phehlukwayo — were guilty of these lapses in focus and discipline, although Jansen assuaged himself by consistently threatening with short deliveries. Mostly, these errors were the result of faulty length, and on both ends of that equation. Of the 68 runs Bangladesh scored this way, 40 were hit off Ngidi.
And all that after the visitors didn’t reach a runrate of four until they had faced 19 overs. Despite this, they twice broke their record for the highest ODI partnership in South Africa. Tamim and Litton put on 95, Bangladesh’s best in South Africa until Shakib al Hasan and Yasir Ali clipped 115 off 82 balls for the fourth wicket. The first half of the visitors’ innings yielded 112 runs. The second went for 202.
“The first 10 to 15 overs, we had a good sense of control over the game,” Temba Bavuma said afterwards. “In the middle overs, in terms of our plans and adapting to the conditions, I don’t think we were on point. Not being able to take wickets was always going to make it tough for us. They always had an in batter who could take the risk when needed.”
Worse yet, that Bavuma’s team were in the field for 29 minutes longer than they should have been may come back to bite them. “When you’re behind the over-rate, that’s an indicator of your intensity,” he said. “If we are guilty of being behind, that’s also something we’ll need to talk about.”
And a lot more besides. But not as much as Bangladesh’s fans, who will talk about Friday’s game for decades to come, and so they should. If a finely tailored suit could wield the willow, it would bat like Shakib did in his breathtaking 77 — all sharp angles and silky skills, and a level of poise ripped from the runway. Yasir’s 50 was cut from a different cloth, a thing of warmth and comfort; a favourite pair of jeans. Together they ensured Bangladesh went to dinner impeccably dressed with a total of 314/7, the first time in 15 ODIs in South Africa that they have made 250 or more.
Would their bowlers be able to match that kind of style? In a word, yes. Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed handed down a masterclass in how to hit the right length and keep the batters guessing on a surface like this — which was not quick, but primed with bounce that was occasionally variable.
South Africa had their best chance of getting out of jail while Rassie van der Dussen was at the crease. He took guard at 36/3 in the ninth over, and with three slips bristling behind his back. But Van der Dussen is made of stern stuff, and he added 85 with Bavuma and 70 — off 64 — with David Miller. There is a certainty about Van der Dussen’s batting, a rock solid faith that anything can be done, and that could make believers out of even the most atheist among us. If only, South Africans will muse, cricket was as simple as religion.
Hold the miracles. Van der Dussen fell for 86 by way of Yasir’s heart-stopping catch at deep backward squad off Taskin, and Miller was stumped, coming down the pitch to Mehidy Hasan, for 79.
That reduced South Africa to 242/9, sealing their fate. But there were 4.3 overs to bowl at that point, and in the stands and on the grass banks the gathered hundreds of jubilant Bangladeshi supporters — far outnumbering the home side’s — no doubt wished there was exponentially more time left in the match. Their team’s impending first ODI win in South Africa, and only their second success in the country in any format in 29 matches, was too special a moment to be taken from them so soon. There was more weirdness where that came from, what with Russell Domingo and Allan Donald celebrating in the wrong dressing room.
Make that the other dressing room. Because, by any measure and nevermind who is going where after the series, the right team won.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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