Maharaj, Mulder spearhead dominant Proteas

Keshav Maharaj, with the bat, and Wiaan Mulder, with the ball, spearheaded a South African assault on Bangladesh that resulted in the home team taking charge of the second Betway test at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Saturday.

After two days, Bangladesh are well behind the eight-ball, finishing the day on 139 for five, still 314 runs behind South Africa’s big first-innings total of 453.

After Maharaj’s highest test score of 84 pushed South Africa to their total, Bangladesh faced a tough task when they went in to bat after tea.

They got off to a poor start when Duanne Olivier swung his fifth ball in the opening over away from Bangladesh’s first test hero, Mahmudul Hasan Joy.

The Durban centurion pushed tentatively at it and his edge went straight to Sarel Erwee at first slip.

Tamim Iqbal, happily restored to Bangladesh’s team after missing the Kingsmead test, responded in typically aggressive fashion to the setback, striking four boundaries in his first 20 runs off 24 balls.

He and Najmul Hossain Shanto were uninhibited in their strokeplay as they added 79 in 120 balls for the second wicket.

It seemed that Bangladesh were on the point of threatening a powerful riposte to South Africa’s total.

It was then that Wiaan Mulder entered the fray. The allrounder hardly got a bowl in Durban but he made a huge difference when introduced in the 21st over at St George’s, claiming three top Bangladesh wickets in a scintillating five-over burst.

Bowling wicket-to-wicket and swinging the ball into the left-handers, he trapped Tamim (47 in 57 balls including eight fours), Shanto and Mominul Haque all leg before in identical fashion with the left-handers overbalancing to the off-side and being hit on the pad in front of their stumps.

At one stage Mulder had the remarkable figures of 5-3-5-3 before Liton Das hit a couple of boundaries off him in his sixth and final over.

Mulder was well supported by Olivier who came back to claim the important wicket of Das, bowled through the gate by a ball that jagged back into the right-hander. He has so far claimed 2-17 in nine overs.

Although spin twins Maharaj and Simon Harmer failed to get a wicket, they troubled Mushfiqur and Yasir Ali with sharp turn and bounce.

Both somehow managed to survive in gloomy conditions through to the close with Mushfiqur unbeaten on 30 and Ali on eight.

EPIC TAIJUL

Earlier, it was the Maharaj show as he struck his highest test score to both accelerate the scoring rate and take his team to a formidable total.

Maharaj’s runs came in 95 balls and included nine fours and three sixes with none better than a shot off the back foot through the covers off Ebadot Hossain to announce his highest score in tests, beating his 73 against Sri Lanka at Centurion in 2020.

After five sessions of hard, largely unrewarding work by the Bangladesh bowlers, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam emerged their star with 6-135 in an epic 50 overs.

It was his 10th five-wicket haul in tests and it was fitting that he brought it up after bowling Maharaj early in the afternoon session.

It was a superb innings by the bowling allrounder, full of flowing, wristy strokes that changed the tempo of the South African innings just when it was required.

Maharaj had come to the wicket with the Proteas stumbling a little on 300 for six and his clean hitting and aggressive approach pressed the accelerator in partnerships of 80 in 100 balls with Mulder and then a further 38 with Harmer.

He was finally dismissed playing an expansive drive at Taijul, a fitting way to go although he was only 16 runs shy of his first test ton.

Further gratification for Taijul came when he picked up his sixth wicket, his 150th in tests, having Harmer superbly stumped by wicketkeeper Das.

Offspinner Mehidy Miraz, who performed so well in Durban, finally got some reward when he had Lizaad Williams lbw to complete the South African innings.

Everyone bar Duanne Olivier, unbeaten without scoring, contributed at least double-figure scores in the South African innings with Maharaj striking the fourth half-century of the innings after earlier efforts by Dean Elgar, Keegan Petersen and Temba Bavuma.

Report Day 1

SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (capt), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickelton, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Lizaad Williams, Duanne Olivier

BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das (wk), Yasir Ali, Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain