The South Africa tour of Bangladesh has been an enjoyable one, with the hosts winning the ODI series and the visitors clinching the T20 series, notwithstanding the fact that later, the first Test was washed out due to rain and the second and final Test too is staring at a similar dampener.
The second Test at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur starting Thursday could disappoint fans, with forecast of showers on all five days. This is not what one had expected after a riveting clash between the two in coloured uniform.
Despite the threat of rain, both the teams will be fully prepared for the second Test, as a victory in the last match of the tour will determine the winner of the Test series as well.
With South Africa having to practise indoors, Proteas opener Deal Elgar feels that the first innings is going to be crucial.
"In the subcontinent, the first innings seems to be quite important for both teams and batting once is an ideal but we understand there's a lot of hard work that goes into doing that," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Elgar as saying.
"It takes a lot of pressure off the side and then you can just go out and express yourselves with the ball."
There was nothing much to choose between the two sides in the first Test match at Chittagong, where the South African top order looked decent before the lower middle order crumbled like a pack of cards.
For Bangaldesh, most of their batsmen got decent starts, but none of them converted it into big scores, which they will be eager to do in the second Test match of the series.
But the South African bowlers will hold the key if they are to win the Test match by taking 20 wickets. Morne Morkel feels that his team needs to step up and justify their world number one ranking.
"We need to be clearer and on the money with our plans to certain batsmen; make them play more, go for three dismissals instead of one. I enjoy bowling on the sub-continent because I don't get as much bounce as I do in South Africa so it brings me into play. It's time for us to step it up and show why we are the number one team in the world," said Morkel.
Irrespective of whether full five days of the Test match shall be played or not (due to shower forecast), cricket fans around the world are still waiting for Dale Steyn's 400th Test wicket, as the bowler is just one wicket short shy of the milestone, after taking three wickets in the first Test.
Where to Watch Live
The second Test match between Bangladesh vs South Africa starts at 9:30am local time (9am IST, 4:30am BST, 11:30pm ET) with live TV coverage in India on Star Sports 4/HD and live streaming on starsports.com.
Viewers in South Africa can watch the action live on Super Sport and Bangladesh viewers can tune on to BTV Gazi Tv.
Willow TV will offer live coverage of the second Test with live streaming option on Willow Tv Online.
