Bangladesh and South Africa clashed at Sher-e-Bangla International Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, for the first Twenty20 (T20) match on Sunday. Unfortunately, Bangladesh were not able to make any impact in the match and the Proteas won it easily by 52 runs. The hosts while chasing a target of 149 were bundled for 96 runs.
Earlier in the day, South Africa T20 skipper Faf du Plessis had won the toss and elected to bat first. Being a day game, he thought that the wicket might slow down a little bit in the second innings and it would be a wise decision to bat first.
Bangladesh bowlers were right on the money from the start. Arafat Sunny picked up the wicket of AB de Villiers in the very first over of the match as he came out to open the innings alongside Quinton de Kock.
South Africa lost wickets on regular intervals, but their skipper stood strong on one end and kept on ticking the scoreboard. He played a flamboyant innings of 79 runs from 61 balls, handling Bangladesh's new pace-sensation Mustafizur Rehman with ease.
Sunny was the pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers as he picked up two important wickets of De Villiers and JP Duminy. No other bowlers could stop the run flow towards the end of the Proteas innings. Rilee Rossouw and Du Plessis added 58 runs at the end, helping South Africa to reach a total of 148 runs on the board.
Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar were dismissed early. Iqbal was the victim of Kyle Abott in the very first over and Sarkar was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada in the second.
Shakib al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim steadied the Bangldesh innings and added 37 runs together. It was Duminy who bowled and picked up two quick wickets of Rahim (17 of 19 balls) and Sabbir Rahman (4 from 7 balls). The floodgates were opened after that and the hosts were all of a sudden reeling at 71 for the loss of six wickets after Shakib threw his wicket away to David Wiese.
South Africa put up an all-round show to emerge victorious in the first of the two T20 matches against Bangladesh. The bowlers used the conditions well and mixed it up nicely with their slower deliveries. Bangladesh's middle-order remained a point of concern for skipper Mashrafe Mortaza and coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.
