Mushfiqur Rahim
Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim needs to urge his bowlers to take quick wickets early in the first session of Day 4.Reuters

The first Test match between Bangladesh and South Africa at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong is evenly poised at the end of third day's play with the visitors trailing by 17 runs with 10 wickets remaining. Hence, the fourth day of the Test match on Friday is going to be crucial.

The third day started well for South Africa as fast bowler Dale Steyn produced the first wicket of the day trapping skipper Mushfiqur Rahim leg before for 28 runs. Bangladesh were 195 for the loss of five wickets and the Proteas had an upper hand with an early wicket, but Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan put up an impressive partnership to carry the team total above 250 mark.

Bangladesh lost the wicket of Hasan, who scored 47 runs. Still, Das continued his impressive batting against the South African bowlers with Mohammad Shahid, who took the attack to the Proteas attack to good effect before falling to Vernon Philander with the score reading 311 for the loss of seven wickets.

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Shahid scored 28 runs of 19 balls. After Shahid's wicket, Bangladesh lost their last three wickets for seven runs only.

So, Bangladesh, after a disappointing final few overs with the bat, came all pumped up to take early wickets, but South African openers Stiaan van Zyl and Dean Elgar hung onto the batting crease and looked comfortable as the second innings progressed.

Van Zyl and Elgar are currently in the batting crease for South Africa with 33 and 28 runs respectively. So, the fate of the match may well be decided by their opening-hour performance on the fourth day, which is going to be the crucial as all three results – draw, win and loss – are on the cards for both the teams.

As Bangladesh are batting last in the Test match, they are going to be under pressure irrespective of the target that is going to be set forth by South Africa.

With Dale Steyn just one wicket short of the historic 400 wickets mark, expect the South African to go all-out and help his team turn victorious.

However, South Africa must first clear the runs deficit and take the game further thereon as they still trail by 17 runs. Had bad light not stopped play on the third day, South African openers were looking good enough to even take lead at stumps on Day 3.

Where to Watch Live

The fate of the first Test match between Bangaldesh and South Africa could well be decided on the fourth day, which starts at 9:30am local time (9am IST, 4:30am BST, 11:30pm ET) with live TV coverage in India on Star Sports 1/HD and live streaming on starsports.com.

South African viewers can watch the action live on Super Sport2/HD and Bangladesh viewers can tune on to Gazi Tv.

The US viewers can catch the fourth day action live on Willow TV with live streaming option on Willow Tv Online.