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The South Africa skipper was also surprised to see a flat batting track at Senwes Park and gave a hint that the Proteas camp demanded a traditional greenish wicket for the second and final Test at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein. “Condition-wise when you play countries like Bangladesh, it is important that you get whatever you (can) from the wicket to give your team some sort of advantage. There wasn’t much advantage for any team. The groundsman said the wicket won't spin and for three-and-a-half days. We got that right,” he explained. “In terms of what we were looking for in pace and bounce, it was really slow. Even some of the tail-enders were comfortable with the short balls there. Bowlers made change in their bowling and they adapted beautifully. We put Bangladesh under pressure for five days and for five days we were in a commanding position,” he added. Bangladesh started the second innings with off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz and set defensive fields to restrict South Africa for as less as possible.
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Du Plessis scored 81 quick-fire runs in the second innings and formed a 142-run fourth wicket stand with middle-order batsman Temba Bavuma. The Proteas skipper informed that such field placing actually helped them to score freely. “They were so far behind the game. What he (Mushfiqur Rahim) was trying is stop the run-flowing. Obviously he tried to attack but when he saw the batsmen were scoring runs he went very defensive trying to make sure that we don’t get away. There was a period when I came in to bat I felt that it was a little bit of pressure and you need to do something to put the pressure back on them. But we got through that easily as the field was spread and it was easier to get runs on the board. So that helped us to score 4.7 runs per over and I guess gave us the opportunity to give the declaration a little bit earlier,” the 33-year old concluded.