World Cup 2019: Five close encounters of the tournament so far
The 2019 World Cup is past its half-way stage mark now as India and New Zealand are unbeaten in their campaign and appear firm favorites to clinch the title. Hosts England and Australia have one loss from their matches but are strong contenders for a spot in the last four.
Bangladesh's gritty show in this edition of the World Cup has seen them win two important games and gives teams such as West Indies, Australia a run for their money while Sri Lanka and West Indies have only one win to show.
Yet, the biggest surprise has been the form of South Africa, with the Faf du Plessis-led side winning just one out of the six games while Pakistan and Afghanistan have failed to turn up and are at the brink of elimination.
As we are now past the halfway stage of the tournament, here is a look at the five most thrilling matches of this tournament.
#5 Bangladesh vs South Africa at the Oval, London
Bangladesh played their first match of this World Cup against South Africa at the Oval. South Africa came into the contest at the back of their heavy defeat against England in the opening match of the tournament.
In the 20 ODIs played between these two teams before this match, Bangladesh had managed to win just three matches, including a World Cup win in 2007. For South Africa, both Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla were not playing this match due to injury which proved to be a major blow.
South Africa won the toss and elected to field. Though they got two early wickets, Lungi Ngidi had to leave the field with a hamstring issue after bowling his opening spell of 4 overs.
Bangladesh’s experienced batting pair of Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim took advantage of South Africa’s bowling woes and added 142 runs for the third wicket. With some lusty hits in the end from Mahmudullah (46 off 33), Bangladesh reached their highest ever ODI score of 330.
In reply, South Africa were comfortably placed in the run chase at one stage with the score reading 147/2 from 26 overs. Howeer, Faf du Plessis was castled by Mehidy Hasan as the floodgates were now open.
Though the middle order line-up of David Miller (38), Rassie van der Dussen (41) and JP Duminy (45) contributed to the chase, none of them survived long enough to play an impact knock.
Against a mounting required run rate, the late order batting caved in leaving Bangladesh victorious by a narrow margin of 21 runs.