full on off stump, and there's the winning hit. Clears his front leg and whips it away, into the big gap to the left of midwicket
South Africa won by 6 wickets (with 39 balls remaining)
5.15pm Match 2 isn't far away, and our commentary for that game - Pakistan vs Namibia - is up and running. Do hop over there as we continue our coverage of this tournament. That's all from this game, so on behalf of Monga and Raghav, goodbye!
Temba Bavuma: "It was a good day for us. Quite a lot in the wicket early on, and KG and Nortje were able to exploit it. It excites us. The conditions reminded us of playing at home. It's never easy when you have one guy bowling 150 and another guy in KG who's got all the skill in the world. We wanted to get the score in a good time, but the conditions were a bit tricky. It's a big game [against England], looking at the competition the way it is, they have had the better of us recently, and we would like to make amends."
Mahmudullah: "I think the wicket was pretty good to bowl on in the first half. We weren't good enough in the middle. That was a poor batting display, but having said that there was enough assistance in the pitch. Taskin has been bowling well in this tournament. We had the choice between Taskin and Fizzy, but we went with Taskin because he has been bowling well. It's frustrating, but we could have won two games. If we had won those games, it would have been a different story."
5.08pm S Rajesh from our stats team tells me South Africa will need to beat England by 81 runs (if they score 160) to top the group.
Kagiso Rabada is the Player of the Match. "That wicket favoured the seamers and I'm just glad that today was my day. Every time we have the opportunity to practice, we try and implement what could possibly work for us. We always train hard, and today it paid off. It's nice to see the ball swing, especially in T20 cricket, but it wasn't a surprise, having seen that happen in the IPL games here. There's a bit of bounce here, but it's a bit two-paced, some balls skid through, but it's probably the quickest wicket here [in the UAE]. [Anrich Nortje] has been in good form for a long time now, and I'm happy for him."
5.00pm Superb performance from South Africa. They've done pretty much exactly what they must have set out to do once they won the toss. And they probably wouldn't have hoped for a win this one-sided. Their net run rate is now up to 0.742, which is more than a run per over better than Australia's at the moment. The seamers set things up, with Kagiso Rabada the major hero, and the batting, after a bit of an early wobble, was controlled and clinical.
Stath: "Bangladesh losing with 33 balls to spare, a slight improvement on when they played England and lost with 35 balls left"
Mark: "This result leaves Australia hoping that South Africa beat England, but not by much and that they can win their last two matches by huge margins to get their Run Rate above South Africa's. Not an easy job! " -- I think Australia would prefer it if England beat South Africa, no?
Rawffe: "SAF's win today has officially/mathematically knocked-out BD and SL."
length ball on the pads, clipped to the left of short fine leg
Over the wicket to Bavuma.
flighted ball outside off, driven to sweeper cover
Here's David Miller. Just five runs to get now. Mahedi comes in from around the wicket, with a slip in place.
down the track, and that's an outstanding catch from Shoriful! Nasum slows it down just a touch, and van der Dussen has to reach out in front of him to hit the lofted shot. Ends up scooping it higher than he wants, and Shoriful turns around at mid-on, sprints towards the boundary, and throws himself forward to catch the ball that is descending from behind him, finishing sprawled on the ground with both hands wrapped around the ball. Outstanding
down the track, and that's a nice shot. Drifting in from wide of the crease, into the batter, and he uses that angle to lift it up over the wide mid-on region
full on middle and leg, pushes gently towards mid-on and gets through for the single. The fielder was on the edge of the circle
There was a slip in place before that ball. No slip now.
a touch short, a touch of width, and Bavuma makes room, slashes it away and gets it into the big gap to the left of backward point
looped up slow outside off, comes forward and pushes into the point region with an open face
quickish length ball, ends up sliding down the leg side, past the attempted flick
steps out to get to the pitch of this leg-stump ball and clips it away wide of midwicket. Good chase from Shoriful to keep it down to three
More adjustments to the bandages under Bavuma's right glove. A bit of excess tape gets snipped off.
Nick M: "It look like one of those "You never really feel in" kind of wickets, and the only sort of batting that had been rewarded is nurdling and some very careful aggression to bad balls. So I think the revised RSA batting approach is justified." -- On the flip side, they can afford to lose a couple more wickets in the effort to go a little harder.
back of a length on off stump, opens his bat face and looks for the dabbed single but backward point rushes forward and to his right to deny him
bang. Length ball just outside off, and that gives Bavuma the room to free his arms and smack this back over the bowler's head
Keeper comes up now.
shuffles out of his crease and Soumya bowls a wide-ish length ball. Driven to the left of mid-off, where Mahmudullah makes the diving save
back of a length outside off, doesn't quite come on to the bat. I think he was looking to punch that to the sweeper, but it goes straighter than he intends, to the man at extra-cover
length ball close to off stump, shuffles out of his crease and clips towards mid-on
A bit of a delay as Bavuma adjusts some taping under his gloves.
back of a length, nips in from just outside off. Tucked away towards deep backward square leg
Dada: "Mahmadullah should probably give Soumya an over or two since the ball is still seaming." -- Well, here he is!
No real boundary-hitting intent in that over. You wonder why, given that they have a decent amount of batting to come.
length ball outside off, makes room to chop it away to the left of deep point
length ball spinning into the stumps, hangs on the back foot and punches to long-on
lovely delivery. Tosses this up outside off stump, and it drifts away in the air. Looks to push into the covers, and it turns in less than expected and slides past the outside edge
steps out to a tossed-up ball on off stump, clips it with the turn to deep midwicket
1W | ||||
1W |
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi | |
Toss | South Africa, elected to field first |
Series | |
Season | 2021/22 |
Player Of The Match | |
Match number | T20I no. 1384 |
Match days | 2 November 2021 - day (20-over match) |
Umpires | |
TV Umpire | |
Reserve Umpire | |
Match Referee | |
Points | South Africa 2, Bangladesh 0 |
Over 14 • SA 86/4
South Africa won by 6 wickets (with 39 balls remaining)