Faf's slippery handle, de Kock's reflexes

At a press conference on Friday, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha had made a gesture of prayer when asked what his bowlers must do to stop AB de Villiers. At the end of the first over of the first T20, Arafat Sunny suckered the dangerman into chipping the ball to cover where the captain Mashrafe Mortaza took an easy catch. With de Villiers gone for 2, Bangladesh's prayer had been answered.

As soon as de Villiers was dismissed, Bangladesh closed in for the kill. Mashrafe Mortaza gave Nasir Hossain the second over and posted Litton Das at short leg and Soumya Sarkar at slip. Litton was there for two full overs before Faf du Plessis' pulled four had him ducking and weaving and the idea was abandoned. The slip, however, stayed put through the duration of Mustafizur Rahman's first over.

Faf du Plessis tried to work Mustafizur's second ball through the on side but the cutter popped off his edge and fell an inch wide of a diving Mushfiqur Rahim. It also fell narrowly short of Soumya Sarkar, who was standing at a wide slip position. Mushfiqur was keeping for the first time since the first ODI against India on June 18, and the ball was just beyond his reach even as he was at full stretch.

Faf du Plessis was having a hard time getting used to the pace of the pitch, particularly against Mustafizur's pace variations. He had a couple of wry smiles when he got beaten and nearly popped a return catch as well. In the 19th over, du Plessis attempted a lap-sweep and lost his grip on the handle of his bat, which flew towards the square-leg fielder, with the ball not landing too far away.

Sabbir Rahman is one of the most skillful shorter-version batsmen in Bangladesh and he plays the reverse-sweep quite well. But when he shaped to play the reverse-sweep against JP Duminy, the wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock moved early, even before the batsman connected with the ball. Sabbir got glove to it, and de Kock was perfectly positioned to take the catch, holding on to his stomach to take it as it rebounded off his thigh. Later, de Kock missed a similar chance off Litton as he inside-edged an attempted cut into the keeper's thigh. He stretched out a glove but the ball was just out of reach; it would have been another brilliant catch had he completed it.