South Africa defeated Bangladesh in the second Twenty20 (T20) match by 31 runs at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla International Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday, 7 July.
South Africa had won the toss and chose to bat in the second T20 game and left Bangladesh clueless during their run chase.
Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers batted brilliantly to set up a 95 runs partnership for the first wicket. At a point, they were cruising and it looked like South Africa were aiming a total of close to 200 runs. But all of a sudden, they lost three wickets in quick succession.
De Kock was dismissed after a well-made 44. De Villiers and JP Duminy were dismissed by Nasir Hossain in consecutive deliveries in the 12th over. The former was looking good during his innings of 40 runs, but unfortunately he edged a delivery that was going down the leg side and Mushfiqur Rahim anticipated the ball and took a good catch behind the stumps.
Faf du Plessis, who scored a match-winning 79 runs in the first T20 match, got out after scoring 16 runs. A late flourish from David Miller and Rilee Rossouw helped them reach a total of 169 runs. These two scored 32 runs in the last two over of their innings.
When the Bangladeshi batsmen Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar came out to bat, things were looking good for the home side. They got off to a good start and scored 46 runs in the powerplay overs. Iqbal yet again got out playing an unnecessary shot. Shakib al-Hasan was pushed up the order to continue with the momentum that the openers had set. But he too was dismissed cheaply.
Rahim started off nicely, but threw his wicket away at a crucial moment during the match. Eddie Leie, a lanky leg-spinner, who made his debut for the Proteas in the T20 format picked up three wickets in his first game. He bowled three overs and conceded just 16 runs. The Bangladeshi batsmen were finding it difficult to play Leie and Aaron Phangiso. During the middle overs, these two spinners tightened the screws and put the hosts under pressure. Sarkar scored 37 runs and that was the highest score in the Bangla Tigers batting line-up.
Eventually, Bangladesh were bowled out for 138 runs. Their middle-order could not rise to the occasion like they did during the India series. This will be a point of concern for them ahead of the upcoming ODI series against South Africa.
Scores:
South Africa: 169 for 4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 44, AB de Villiers 40, David Miller 30*; Nasir Hossain 2 for 26)
Bangladesh: 138 in 20 overs (Soumya Sarkar 37, Mushfiqur Rahim 19, Rony Talukdar 21; Eddie Leie 3 for 16, Aaron Phangiso 3 for 30, Kyle Abbott 3 for 20).
