Even a sunny day was not enough to erase the gloominess rain had left in South Africa’s tour of Bangladesh as the bilateral series ended without any action on the last day of the second Test yesterday. Bangladesh were 246/8 in 88.1 overs after the first day’s play before heavy downpour washed away the second, third and fourth day of the Dhaka Test leaving the outfield in no condition to hold play on the last day.
There is no confusion on how good the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium drainage system is, but sometimes even the best rated systems also fail when the field has soaked up too much rain water. As a result, the match was called off around 10am yesterday due to the wet field as the two captains, much to their dislike, shared the two-match Test series trophy.
Rain had earlier spoiled the last two days of the first Test in Chittagong, forcing an interesting match end in a tame draw. With only four days allowed to play out of the 10 in two Tests, ninth placed Bangladesh gained six rating points against the top Test nation.
Earlier, Bangladesh’s middle-order batsman Mahmudullah also expressed dissatisfaction over the wash-outs as he said that they were looking to test their skills against the world number one Test side. Tigers Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim echoed his team-mate and said: “Even if we declared, they would have had to bat for a whole day [in case the match is played on the last day]. May be there would have been no result, but we could have earned something positive.”
However, Proteas captain Hashim Amla has every reason to curse the weather as they lost five valuable rating points from the result. “You can understand if it’s a 1-1 draw, then you’ve played enough cricket to make an impression,” Amla said after the match was called off yesterday. “Perhaps this is something that can be relooked at from the ICC’s perspective. All you’d want is something that is fair and will apply to all teams. Us losing points seems a little strange considering we haven’t played a lot of cricket.”
The Twenty20 international trophy is the only silverware that fully belongs to the visitors from their month-long tour of Bangladesh as the home side had stunned the World Cup semi-finalists in the three-match one-day international series, beating them 2-1.
Bangladesh’s next assignment, a two-match Test series, will also be at home against Australia in October.
