One can do nothing but just pity Bangladesh considering the way they have been massacred during their ongoing tour of South Africa. The two Test matches were nothing more than a show of brawn muscle from South Africa as the visitors capitulated against the hosts. The first ODI too followed a similar trend as the Proteas were all over the Bangladeshis, decimating them in the series opener.
Batting first, Bangladesh got to a decent total of 278-7 as Mushfiqur Rahim starred with the bat with a fine knock of 110. Rahim was the fulcrum of his team’s batting performance as none of the other batsmen could even manage a half-century. If there were any hopes of Bangladesh defending the score, they all came crashing down as Quinton De Kock, and Hashim Amla raged fire.
The ever magnificent opening combination of the South Africans wrapped up the formalities by themselves as the Bangladeshi bowlers were just left to rue on what was needed even to pick a single wicket.
In no time, the openers raced off to their centuries with keeper-batsman Quinton De Kock doing the bulk of the scoring. Towards the end, De Kock was unbeaten on 168 and Amla unbeaten on 110 as the hosts sealed home with ten wickets in hand and 43 balls to spare.
Post the win, Faf du Plessis mentioned that he felt terrible for Bangladesh, but this is what South Africa’s ruthless brand of cricket meant. “We are playing well,” du Plessis said.
“Once again a dominating performance and that is what we are looking for. We are feeling a bit sorry for the Bangladeshi team but this is what being ruthless is all about. We could’ve easily thrown things away but ensured that we got through unbeaten.”
“I thought the wicket was a bit slow to start off and the way our batters played was difficult for them to control. With the wind as strong as this we tried to eliminate one side of the wicket. We always look to get wickets and that is what the chats with my bowlers were. I, in fact went to the coach and spoke to him about getting Andile in to get him to finish games,” he added.
Terming Quinton De Kock as exceptional, Faf added:
“Quinton was exceptional with the way he put pressure on the bowlers and Hash was what he is usually. They were greedy and that’s how you need to be.”