Bangladesh were dismissed for their second lowest score in Test cricket on the last day of the first Test against South Africa on Monday, losing the match by 220 runs.
Bangladesh needed to score 274 to win this match. But they were all out for 53 in just 19 overs. Keshav Maharaj scalped seven wickets conceding 32 runs while the other spinner Simon Harmer took three wickets.
At the end of day four, Bangladesh were at 11 for three in six overs. For the first time in their history, South Africa opened the bowling with spinners in the Test at home, and they got a good result from both ends. While Harmer removed Shadman Islam as the first wicket, Keshav scalped the second and third wickets— Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Mominul Haque.
South Africa did not require any other bowler to dismantle the Tigers. Keshav bowled 10 overs and Harmer bowled nine to wipe out all Bangladeshi batters.
The two unbeaten batters were Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain Shanto, both failed to take up the onus. Shanto scored 26, but Mushfiqur failed to add anything on the board. Apart from Shanto, Taskin Ahmed was the other batter to reach a double digit total— 14.
Bangladesh lost all of their last seven wickets in just 16 overs with Keshav taking five of them.
“We tried to play according to the merit of the ball. We wanted to play till the final session. Unfortunately we lost three wickets last night, that was crucial. We are used to playing spin. We also know that Durban spins from 3rd-4th day, we didn’t capitalise well with the bat,” Bangladesh captain told the broadcasters.
Earlier, South Africa ended their second innings on 204 in 74 overs. Captain Dean Elgar posted the highest 64 while Keegan Petersen and Ryan Rickelton posted 36 and 39 respectively.
For Bangladesh, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadot Hossain bagged three wickets each. Taskin Ahmed also scalped two wickets.
In the first innings of this Test, South Africa posted 367 with Elgar and Temba Bavuma leading their batting line-up scoring 67 and 93.
Khaled Ahmed led Bangladesh’s bowling, taking four wickets— his best in the format, while Mehidy Hasan took three.
In reply, Bangladesh’s first innings was a heroic show by Joy who hit a ton in his first Test in South Africa. Riding on his century, Bangladesh ended up on 298. Joy fell as the last batter scoring 137.
Harmer bagged four for South Africa in Bangladesh’s first innings.
Before this series, Bangladesh played 12 Tests against South Africa but failed to win any of them.
However, the Tigers won the ODI series right before the ongoing Test series which was Bangladesh’s maiden ODI series win on the soil of South Africa.
The second Test of the series will be played from April 8. Bangladesh will miss the service of Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam in the second Test as both the Pacers are set to return home on April 5 due to injuries
Source: United News of Bangladesh