Elect to bowl, bring spinner in sixth over!The day started with a surprising decision from Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim as he elected to bowl after winning the toss on an unfamiliarly good batting track at Senwes Park. South Africa made a solid start in the morning session and kept all of their wickets intact after the first couple of hours’ play. Surprisingly, Mushfiq brought off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz in just the sixth over of the innings. Paceman Shafiul Islam was picked over fellow pacers Rubel Hossain and Subashish Roy but Shafiul bowled only two overs at the beginning. It seemed really shocking when Miraz came on to bowl in only the sixth over. Electing to bowl on a South African pitch and bringing a spinner in after just five overs was eye-catching to say the least for the spectators, commentators, as well as everyone else.Brilliant Markram’s brilliance ends with unfortunate run outDebutant Aiden Markram played a brilliant and composed innings in his very first outing in Test cricket. The tall right-handed opening batsman scored 97 off 152 balls before being run out following a mix-up with fellow opener Dean Elgar in the 55th over. Markram struck 13 boundaries in his innings. In the process, he became only the third batsman in Test history to get out in the nervous 90s on debut after Abdul Qadir of Pakistan and Gordon Greenidge of the West Indies. The incident happened in the second ball of the over. Elgar was batting on 99 and Markram 97. Elgar opened the face of the bat and dabbed it to the left of backward point off the bowling of Miraz. He took a few steps down the pitch. Markram responded but after going nearly halfway down the pitch, he turned back. Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque swooped down on the ball and threw it to Miraz, who whipped the bails off. The debutant was caught well short of his crease.Tough chance but Sabbir missed Amla's catchIt was a frustrating day for the Bangladesh bowlers as South Africa batsmen dominated throughout the entire day. The Proteas batsmen did not give that much of a chance. But Sabbir Rahman missed a tough return catch of Hashim Amla in the 77th over. Sabbir gave a juicy full toss in just the third ball of his over and Amla smashed it for a four over mid-wicket. And in the very next ball, it was tossed up by Sabbir. Amla stretched out and belted it back to the right side of the bowler. Sabbir stretched his right hand out only to finger-tip it away to the boundary. It was a really tough chance but on a day when South Africa batsmen were dominating on a good batting pitch, such half chances could prove to be costly. Amla was on 45 at that time.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
