|
Proteas stunned
to silence by the Tigers! |
April 07, 2007 (Link to
Scorecard)
South Africa have been added to the list of
causalities that have fallen prey for taking
Bangladesh lightly. Yes, the young Bangladeshi
Tigers have caused a serious upset by stunning
the Proteas with a crushing 67-run win in the
Super Eights Match at the Providence Stadium in
Guyana. This victory proves that the Tigers'
victory over India was no fluke and provided
they play to their potential, they can indeed
make their opposition struggle or even panic as
in the case of the South Africans today. This
defeat against Bangladesh means that the World
No.1, of course no longer the No. 1 will have to
work a lot harder to enter the Semis.
The ideal situation for Bangladesh to win any
match is to put up a 250 plus total and let its
spinners strangle the batsmen with their nagging
lines and lengths. That was what had happened
today with the Bangla batsmen coming good to put
up 251 on the board for the loss of 8 wickets
after they were put into bat first. And the
bowlers with the spinners being the nucleus
created the pressure in the middle overs which
saw Proteas choke to 184 all out! The Man of the
Match was little Mohammad Ashraful scoring an
ever so busy 87 from 83 with a dozen boundaries
that gave the momentum and the perfect finish.
Aftab Ahmed, another little one was the co-star
with a 43 ball 35 that had two vital sixes that
sailed into the crowd on the onside. Mashrafe
Mortaza used the long handle to superb effect to
remain undefeated on 25 from 16 with 3 fours and
a six as Bangladesh got what they wanted on the
board. This was after a solid opening
partnership between Javed Omar (17) and Tamim
Iqbal (38) which got 42, but most importantly
saw the shine off the new ball to make it easy
for the middle order bats.
Mr. Extras contributed a more than handy 24 runs
and to sum it up it wasn't tidy bowling at all
from the Proteas. The bowlers to suffer were
Makhaya Ntini with 1 for 61 in 10 while Charl
Langeveldt went for 57 in his 10. Andre Nel did
pick up a five-wicket haul with 5 for 45 in 10
and Pollock did his job quietly with 0 for 25 in
10, but the South African attack lacked the
variations with as many as six of them bowling
right arm pace.
The South Africans in their chase of a competent
target lost its two in form batsmen Smith (12)
and Kallis (32) to the slow left arm pace of
Syed Rasel. Both batsmen fell playing
adventurous shots. The double blow of AB de
Villiers and Ashwell Prince with the addition of
just the three runs got the Tigers to believe
that they were in the Driver's Seat. Another
double blow which included the wickets of
Boucher and Kemp in the 27th over confirmed just
that and this time there was no chance for the
South Africans to fightback. At 87 for 6 in 26.5
overs, the backs were against the walls with the
required run rate as well going out of favour
for the World No.1 Side. Herschelle Gibbs tried
his best, but his problem of coming too low down
at no.7 meant that he was stranded on an
unbeaten 56 from 59 with a boundary and a couple
of sixes. Pollock's wicket was really the last
nail in the coffin after he was run out by Tamim
Iqbal to have SA at 132 for 7 in the 36th over.
Now why Gibbs was asked to bat at no.7 looks to
be the million dollar question! Nevertheless, it
was one heck of a clinical performance from the
Bangladeshi bowlers in bowling out SA for 184 in
48.4 overs. The left arm spin trio of Razzak,
Rafique and Saqibul bowled 29.4 overs to take
six wickets conceding only 96 runs, now that was
match winning efforts. The Proteas better learn
to play spin...
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