South Africa crush Bangladesh by 83 runs
South Africa all but batted Bangladesh out of the game after they piled on a massive score after choosing to bat first
Anand Vasu
14-Apr-2003
South Africa all but batted Bangladesh out of the game after
they piled on a massive score after choosing to bat first. While
Mohammad Ashraful's brave resistance yielded a half-century
and helped Bangladesh make a fist of it for a while, it was never
going to be enough to alter the result. The gulf between the
sides grew apparent as the required run-rate sprinted away from
the scoring rate. The end, when it came in the 50th over, saw
Bangladesh reach 211, well short of the required 295.
On a featherbed Dhaka wicket, South Africa stitched together
their 294 for 3 against Bangladesh without so much as straining
sinews. Their batting was a passage of play with few thrills - no
batsman went after the bowling, no bowler caught the eye.
Openers Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith too provided a good
start with minimum fuss. They took ones and twos at will and
rarely missed out on opportunities to strike boundaries.
It was only in the 17th over that the opening stand of 112 was
broken. Mohammad Rafique had Smith stumped, deceiving him
with a gentle floater. Smith showed his disappointment, swinging
his bat angrily and cursing himself for squandering a golden
opportunity.
If Smith was unlucky to miss out, Gibbs was plain stupid to do
so. Jacques Rudolph eased a slow delivery down to long off and
set off briskly. With the single completed, the batsmen turned
with plenty of time to make it two. But instead of running hard,
Gibbs merely sauntered across, and a good throw from Javed
Omar found the stumps via Alok Kapali. Gibbs' run-a-ball 62 came
to a sorry end and South Africa had needlessly lost another
wicket (133 for 2).
The removal of both openers with slightly more than 20 overs
bowled gave Bangladesh a chance to put pressure on a South
African middle order short of a batsman of the highest quality.
With Jacques Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar attempting to get
set, the bowlers slipped in a few tight overs.
Try as they might though, they could not pick up wickets.
Rudolph began to step up the scoring rate, motoring on to 44 off
45 balls, before a lapse in concentration cost him his wicket. He
chopped hard at a short, wide ball from Rafique, but only
managed a top edge to Tareq Aziz at short third man (189 for
3).
From there on, with wickets in hand, some South Africans would
have looked at a 300-plus total. After all, India did exactly that
against them yesterday. The logic was sound, barring the simple
fact that Neil McKenzie (55*) could not strike the ball as freely
as Dinesh Mongia, and Dippenaar (66*) could not pace his
innings as well as Mohammad Kaif.
A largely charmless partnership of 105 runs in 111 balls took
South Africa close to 300 though, and it was more than enough
to send Bangladesh plummeting to a 34th successive ODI defeat.
Mohammad Ashraful kept the South African bowlers at bay for
almost 30 overs, raising Bangladeshi hopes with an exuberant 52
- by far the top score for Bangladesh. Crisp strokes flew off his
blade, most notably when the ball was dropped short. A range of
pull shots - from the orthodox to the bizarre - saw him strike
seven boundaries. It was Paul Adams who finally dismissed
Ashraful, inducing an edge when he tried a flashy cut shot (112
for 4).
The fall of Ashraful marked the beginning of the end of
Bangladesh's charge towards victory. Khaled Mahmud threw his
bat around for 40, and aided by some uncharacteristically inept
catching, he helped Bangladesh to bat out 49.1 overs. In the
end though, Bangladesh finished adrift by 83 runs. Shaun
Pollock, with 4 for 37, was easily the pick of the bowlers.
Perhaps this will persuade Smith to open the bowling with Pollock
in future games.