South Africa complete hard-fought win
South Africa took 10.5 overs to knock off the 27 runs needed to clinch a hard-fought five-wicket in the first Test in Mirpur
The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran
25-Feb-2008
South Africa 170 (de Villiers 46, Shahadat 6-27) and 208 for 5 (Smith 62, Amla 46) beat Bangladesh 192 (Aftab 44, Morkel 5-50) and 182 (Siddique 74, Kallis 5 for 30) by five wickets
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
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And so the drought continues. More than seven years after they were
granted Test status, and in their 44th match against non-Zimbabwean
opposition, Bangladesh slipped up yet again, squandering the advantages
gained on the second day to subside to a five-wicket defeat on the fourth
morning. It took South Africa 10.5 overs to knock off the 27 needed, but
the result was never in doubt after Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Ashwell
Prince had built on a superb spell from Jacques Kallis.
Prince, who played a couple of pleasing drives off Shahadat Hossain, was
unlucky not to be there at the end, given out leg before though the
delivery from Shahadat pitched outside the line of leg stump. Aleem Dar
gave it, but there was to be no final twist in this tale.
AB de Villiers, who endured several uncomfortable moments against the
left-arm spin of Mohammad Rafique, clipped two fours of Shahadat to bring
the scores level, and Mark Boucher then cut one past point to start the
celebrations in the South African camp. Prohibitive favourites before the
series started, they had been made to work exceptionally hard by a
Bangladeshi team inspired by Shahadat's nine wickets.
Bangladesh will look back ruefully at their inability to post 200 in
either innings. The opening day offered plenty of insight into their
batting woes, with six batsmen spending reasonable time in the middle
before throwing it away. The main culprit was Mohammad Ashraful, the
captain, who sauntered to 34 from 26 balls before an over-exuberant charge
at Johan Botha changed the complexion of the match.
Jamie Siddons, the new coach, will take the positives from this match,
especially the bowling of Shahadat and the restrained 74 from Junaid
Siddique. But he also needs to look at a relatively listless display from
Mashrafe Mortaza, and cavalier strokes from too many of the batsmen. South
Africa are unlikely to be as sloppy in the second Test.
Dileep Premachandran is an associate editor at Cricinfo