Bangladesh one-day international captain Tamim Iqbal blamed uneven bounce on the wicket for the batting unit failure and the defeat against hosts South Africa in the second game of the three-match series.
Bangladesh on Sunday following a batting debacle conceded a seven-wicket defeat to the Proteas at the Wanderers and slip from series lead. Bangladesh ahead of the game were leading the series 1-0 having won the first game and had the opportunity to seal a historic series win with a game to spare.
Bangladesh found themselves in trouble losing early wickets to South Africa pace attack. The tourists lost five wickets with just 34 runs on the board inside the 13th overs. Afif Hossain and Mehdiy Hasan Miraz came to the rescue with 86 runs for the seventh wicket and push the total to 194 for nine. Afif got his second ODI half-century and scored 72 before perishing in the 46th over.
Bangladesh bowlers could remove only three South Africa batters as the chase was completed in 37.2 overs with Quinton de Kock’s fiery 41-ball 62 involving four boundaries and two over boundaries. Kyle Verreynne was not out on 58.
“We all expect there to be bounce on the wickets in South Africa but today [Sunday] it was uneven bounce. If you look at my dismissal and others throughout the game – one kept low another was at good length. It has nothing to do with the pace and the bounce as it is expected,” said Tamim to the media at the post match press conference on Sunday.
“240 or 250 could have a been a good total as the wicket was helping the spinners from one end. I think [Yasir Ali] Rabbi’s wicket to [Kagiso] Rabada was costly because after that he came and bowled two more overs. If we could have taken the last partnership a little deeper, we would have had more runs on the board but still the way Afif and Miraz batted it shows that there were rooms to score rooms specially in the middle overs. We all know they are to come hard in first 10. We simply did not have enough batters to capitalize in the middle,” the Bangladesh opener added.
With the series leveled at 1-1, Bangladesh now will take on South Africa in the decider at the Centurion on Wednesday. Speaking of the positive to take from the second game into the series decider, Tamim said it is tough to find one.
“It is tough to find positive from such games. If I have to say one positive it was Afif-Miraz partnership. The way Afif batted was very good to see because he was very calm, took his chances. I would have loved it more if he could have finished the innings but I thought this was the only positive from this game,” said the Bangladesh ODI captain.