World Cup 2019: Three reasons why Bangladesh won against South Africa
Bangladesh got their World Cup 2019 campaign off to a fantastic start as they put up their highest ever ODI score of 330-6 from 50 overs and then held their nerves to restrict the South Africans and clinch an important 21-run win.
If the road to the World Cup removed the 'minnows' tag from Bangladesh, the win against South Africa is sure to send across a wave of authority to all the teams bound to face the Bangla Tigers.
Batting first on a batsman-friendly pitch alone does not win you a game but the fact that Bangladesh, after being put in to bat by an optimistic Faf du Plessis put up 330 against a strong bowling attack was commendable.
Lungi Ngidi's injury and the poor death bowling was one of the major reasons why Bangladesh won but here, we take a look at a few other issues that South Africa will hope to correct in the upcoming games.
#1 Exploiting the injuries
Exploiting the resources always yields well. But Bangladeshis went one step ahead and exploited the injury scares of Proteas very well.
South Africa started off the World Cup with too many injury scares. Not to forget Chris Morris’ inclusion at the last minute after Anrich Nortje got ruled out due to a hand injury. Dale Steyn already in recovery mode, Proteas got their next blow through Hashim Amla who had to miss this game after the Jofra Archer’s bouncer hit him bang on the head.
To add more salt to South Africa’s wounds, Lungi Ngidi pulled his hamstring at the end of the seventh over and returned to the pavilion. Knowing that Ngidi’s left out 6 overs are ought to come from part-timers, the Bangladeshis waited for those overs to accelerate runs and it worked out well.
#2 Crucial partnerships
From 75-2 in 12th over to 217-3 in 36th over, Bangladeshis almost confirmed their win through this partnership. Bangladesh’s top performers, Shakib Al Hasan and Musfiqur Rahim stepped up on the big game and put up this 142-run stand, which became the main reason for Bangladesh's victory.
As that partnership gave the license for Mahmadullah and Mosaddek Hossain to go after the bowling at the death, Bangladesh scored 54 runs off the last 4 overs.
Crucial partnerships make the game indeed. It was something which Bangladesh did but the Proteas failed to capitalize. Who knows, it could have been South Africa’s game if the in-form Rassie van der Dussen came ahead of David Miller and went on to chase the target along with Faf du plessis. Van der Dussen perished scoring 41 off 38 balls as he came in a situation where 120 odd runs were needed in around 14 overs.
#3 Right and tight lines
Mashrafe Mortaza was high on morale with a big score on board and went on to give the new ball to Mehidy Hasan by pushing himself down to middle overs. Though the first wicket came up only in 10th over through a runout, Mehidy and Mustafizur restricted the start Proteas would have wanted to chase a 300+ target.
The initial breakthrough paved way for one more through Shakib who went on reach his 250 wickets milestone. Mustafizur Rahman’s and Mehidy’s tight line of bowling not only stopped the run flow but also yielded the four main scalps of Proteas' middle order along with the support of Saifuddin who was also at his best.
With five batsmen settling in and scoring and, four bowlers bowling at right lines and amongst wickets, Bangla tigers deserved this win indeed.
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