Proteas clinch series
South Africa defeat Bangladesh by seven wickets to wrap up one-day series.
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| AB de Villiers smashes the stumps with a run out [GALLO/GETTY] |
A 119-run unbeaten partnership between AB de Villiers (69) and Jean-Paul Duminy (49) steered South Africa to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Bangladesh that clinched their one-day series.
Four wickets by Andre Nel had seen Bangladesh bowled out for 173, and South Africa was in some trouble at 60-3 in reply before winning the second of three one-day internationals with 11 balls to spare.
Herschelle Gibbs (3) was the first South Africa batsman to fall, trapped lbw by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
Bangladesh spinner Abdur Razzak (2-32) then dismissed Hashim Amla (16) before bowling out captain Graeme Smith (28) to raise victory hopes, but could find no way past de Villiers and Duminy, who were more solid than spectacular in chasing down the runs.
Early setback
Earlier, Bangladesh struggled to recover from a top-order collapse, riding on half centuries by Shakib Al Hasan and Roqibul Hassan and their record-breaking partnership at the 5th wicket.
Bangladesh won the toss but slumped to 18-4, before Al Hasan (52) and Hassan (63) managed a 119-run stand, the highest 5th wicket partnership for the hosts.
Nel took 4-27 to destroy Bangladesh’s innings and send a message to South Africa selectors who left him out of the upcoming test tour of India.
Nel bowled opener Tamim Iqbal for a duck on the third ball of the innings, and then lured Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful (0) into a hook shot that was caught on the boundary by Albie Morkel.
Charl Langeveldt picked up one-day debutant Nazimuddin (11) lbw before Nel struck again, inducing an edge from Shariar Nafees (5) through to the wicketkeeper and Bangladesh was a humbling 18-4 in the seventh over.
Hassan and Al Hasan put together the disciplined stand the situation demanded, adding 119 runs, before Hassan (63) was caught trying to pull a Langeveldt short ball from outside off-stump, succeeding only in spooning it to captain Graeme Smith at mid-on.
Hassan’s departure prompted another collapse as the home side lost 4 wickets for 10 runs.
The return of Nel to the attack saw Dhiman Ghosh (0) run out and Abdur Razzak (0) caught behind in the same over.
Hasan (52) was next to go, caught by Herschelle Gibbs off a delivery by Johan Botha as he tried to scoop it over the infield but ended up hitting it to short cover.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mosharraf Hossain (4) added 20 runs for the ninth wicket before Hossain was run out in a mix-up between the batsmen, and the inning ended when Bin Mortaza (20) was caught off Langeveldt by Paul Harris at extra cover.
Langeveldt finished with 3-31.
The final match of the series will be in Dhaka on Friday.