Cricket South Africa’s most ardent supporters will concede that Bangladesh did better this time. But only by a razor-thin margin. On Monday, they lost their final seven wickets in 55 minutes at Kingsmead. A week later, South Africa took four minutes longer to win seven medals at St. George’s Park. South Africa won by 332 runs with an hour and a minute to spare to secure a 2-0 series victory.
The visitors began on 27/3 and were crushed for 80 in a second innings that lasted only 23.3 overs, allowing them to win by 332 runs with an hour and a minute to spare. Bangladesh has only been bowled out for fewer than 50 runs three times in 130 Tests, a humiliating record that includes their 53 in Durban.
Bangladesh has lost all eight Tests it has played in South Africa, five of them by an innings. Indeed, last week’s 220-run loss was their narrowest margin of defeat in the United States.
The visitors’ hopes would have been boosted by their outstanding performance in the One-Day Internationals, where they cruised to two convincing victories to clinch the series, but these two results will sting much more than the others. As it turned out, all this did was force them to drop even worse. Worse, Bangladesh not only lost, but they did it ignobly by blaming some of their bad performances on the umpiring standard.
But there are a lot of them. It was difficult to imagine South Africa’s unrivaled triumph in this series when Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Rassie van der Dussen, and Aiden Markram chose to play in the Indian Premier League instead of the ODIs.
Dean Elgar pleaded with them not to leave, but now that South Africa has won without them, things appear to have changed.
During a Monday press conference, Elgar added, “I don’t know if those players will be selected again; that’s out of my control.” Mark Boucher concurred, “They did go to the IPL and lost their spots.”
If the CSA wanted to spin the story in a good light, they might claim that they were always aware that the IPL clash would mean South Africa would be without their first-choice pace attack. As a result, the suits may have claimed that the matches were played on fields where spin would be dominant.
Keshav Maharaj’s presence was not expected to cast such a large shadow on the proceedings. Maharaj followed up his 7/32 in the second innings at Kingsmead with a 7/40 at St George’s Park, becoming the first bowler in Test history to take seven wickets in two consecutive innings. In Gqeberha, where the pitch allowed the ball to flip and bounce more sharply than in Durban, he was practically unplayable.
So much so that, in these circumstances, Maharaj would almost probably have won if he had faced much better opposition.
Before Kingsmead, South Africa had never used only two bowlers to take all ten wickets in an innings before. They’ve done it before, and now they’ve done it again.
Simon Harmer was the other bowler, and he was an excellent foil. Harmer bowls a slow poison that deserves its category in player profiles: non-Asian attacking orthodox off-spin, which was an oxymoron not long ago.
Keshav Maharaj got 16 wickets at an average of 12.12 in the two matches, while Harmer took 13 at 15.15. No other bowler had a striking total of greater than nine. Wiaan Mulder was the only other bowler in the series with an average below 20, but he only bowled 17 overs. Maharaj and Harmer bowled nearly two-thirds of South Africa’s overs in the match.
The inability of the home team to convert any of their seven half-centuries into centuries proved disappointing. Since Kyle Verreynne’s 136 not out in Christchurch in February, his team’s most recent total, of forty whole individual innings for South Africa has passed. Elgar, the series’ highest run-scorer, got three of South Africa’s 50s against Bangladesh.
“We need to add a few hundred dollars to our total. When we get into fantastic positions, our older men need to get to three digits. We understand the significance of this, as well as the pressure you’re putting on the opposition. Our batting average is our only flaw. We’re completely aware of the issue and are working round the clock to secure those thousands of dollars. “
It’s always going to make leadership easier if you’re playing terrific cricket and the results are going your way. Off the field, the last year has been tremendously challenging, but I am fortunate to have an incredible group of teammates who know and respect me as a player and a person. They are aware of the type of cricket I prefer to play. The majority of the senior men are on board. We’re in a unique location, which makes me feel much better about what I’m doing. “
Elgar will make his next appearance as South Africa’s captain in England in August.Â
He made his captaincy debut in July 2017, coming in for Faf du Plessis, who was on paternity leave and missed the first Test of the series at Lord’s. England had won by 211 runs in just four days.
Published By : Shubham Ghulaxe
Edited By: Khushi Thakur
