Even before coming to Bangladesh, the Proteas have been saying that there was no chance of taking the Tigers lightly.
But after facing a dominating nine-wicket blow in the hands of the Tigers in the third ODI at Chittagong yesterday, the Proteas must believe more than ever before that Bangladesh has now become a force to be reckoned with in the longer version of limited-over cricket.
For Bangladesh, it was all about repeating a clinical performance – both with bat and ball and on the field – after defeating the mighty South Africans in the second ODI by seven wickets, turning around from a heavy eight-wicket defeat in the first match.
Since the World Cup, Soumya Sarker – even when he played smaller innings – never looked out of touch. His 90-run knock on the back of his Sunday’s match winning 88 was just another statement of the brave cricket that the Tigers have been playing recently.
For his outstanding performance, Soumya was unsurprisingly adjudged the player of the match, as well as being picked as the man of the series for his 205 runs in the three ODIs.
Meanwhile, criticised for his rash dismissals in the previous four innings, Tamim scored 61 of 77 to prove once again that he performs best when under pressure. Needless to mention, when he clicks, Bangladesh wins.
And the Proteas, who rank 4th in ICC ODI rankings, was just another trophy on the Tigers wall of success, after the Pakistanis and the Indians.
Bowlers have always been the unsung hero of limited-over cricket. But for the first time in the history of Bangladesh cricket, bowlers are consistently sealing the fate of the state of affairs in the first half of matches.
Restricting the South African batting in the 160s in consecutive matches is in itself a feat that even many top teams would dream about. But Bangladesh’s bowlers did the basics right, hitting the right lines and lengths, and it was not a dream anymore.
Opting to bat, South Africa were in all sorts of trouble after young Mustafizur Rahman cleaned up opener Quinton de Kock in the third over for just seven runs. Faf du Plessis quickly followed suit off the bowling of Shakib Al Hasan.
The bowlers kept things really tight for the Protea batters and Shakib soon dismissed Amla to become the second Bangladesh bowler after Abdur Razzak to join the 200-wicket club.
The champion all-rounder also became the seventh cricketer in history to pick up 200 wickets and score 4,000 runs.
After Mahmudullah picked up the wicket of Rilee Rossouw, the visitors were in deep trouble at 50 for 4 in 16 overs. JP Duminy and David Miller started to rebuild the innings for the batting side before rain interrupted the match in the 23rd over.
However, play resumed after three hours and the match was reduced to a 40-overs-per-side affair. Both Duminy and Miller were looking for some quick runs and added 63 for the sixth wicket.
Tigers skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza joined in the party for the home side by picking up his 200th wicket in the limited-over format after Sabbir Rahman grabbed a brilliant diving catch at point to dismiss Miller, who scored 44 off 51, hitting five fours. The Narail Express became the third Bangladesh bowler to pick 200 ODI wickets.
Duminy smashed his 21st fifty and ended up scoring 51 off 70 balls, hitting just three fours.
Shakib picked up 3 for 33 in eight overs while fast bowler duo Rubel and Mustafiz took two wickets each.
