South Africa’s spin twins, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, were at it again on Sunday evening when they reduced Bangladesh to 27 for three in their second innings as the tourists were faced with an intimidating 413 to win the second Betway test on the third day at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.
After dismissing Bangladesh for 217 in their first innings, the Proteas scored at a rapid rate of nearly 4.5 to the over in their second innings before declaring on 176 for six, giving themselves a chance of striking some early blows in the evening session.
Not surprisingly, that task was assigned to Maharaj and Harmer in the evening light as the two spinners surrounded the Bangladesh batsmen with fielders around the bat.
The first victim came in Maharaj’s first over as Mahmudul Hasan Joy played well away from his body to edge the fifth delivery.
The ball bounced off wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne’s gloves into the hands of Wiaan Mulder at second slip and the young opener, the Bangladesh hero in Durban with a first-innings century, had been brought crashing down to earth with a “pair” in Gqeberha.
Maharaj struck again in his second over, turning one sharply into Najmul Shanto to trap him leg before.
It was Harmer, however, who struck the biggest blow in what proved to be the final over, getting one to bounce sharply off a length for the dangerous Tamim Iqbal (13) to glove an easy catch to Mulder at slip.
That was the last action of the session as the players left the field immediately afterwards.
The South African spinners have made the ball talk, particularly in the evening sessions at Kingsmead and St George’s Park, and so it proved once again as the tourists face a near-hopeless task of averting defeat on Monday’s fourth day.
PANICKING
Earlier, Bangladesh, resuming on 139 for five in their first innings after a brief rain delay, enjoyed a good start to their endeavours with Mushfiqur Rahim and Yasir Ali taking their sixth-wicket partnership to 70 in 162 balls through a mixture of good batting and some loose bowling in the early overs by Lizaad Williams.
Inevitably, it seemed, the men to make the breakthrough were Maharaj and Harmer. The former struck first when Yasir, in an attempt to turn a delivery to leg, only succeeded in getting a leading edge back to the bowler who had a brief juggle before clinging onto the catch.
Yasir, who struck seven fours in his 87-ball 46, showed his frustration as he walked off.
Then it was the turn of Harmer, who had strangely been held back to the penultimate over before lunch, who panicked Mushfiqur into playing a reverse sweep with the ball uprooting his off-stump.
The rest of the innings subsided quickly after lunch with the visitors grabbing the final three wickets for seven runs, two to Harmer and one to Maharaj.
Mulder was the outstanding South African bowler in the innings, taking 3-25 in 13 overs. Harmer also took three wickets while Maharaj and Olivier took two apiece.
POSITIVE INTENT
South Africa had gained a large first-innings lead of 236, and it was clear from the start of their second innings that skipper Dean Elgar wanted quick runs and an early declaration.
Elgar and Erwee batted with positive intent, though Erwee was fortunate to survive in Ebadot Hossain’s first over when he edged a square cut straight to Mehidy in the gully.
The fielder completely failed to pick up the ball which crashed into his rib cage. He was stretchered off the field although he did return later.
The openers added 60 in 69 balls before Elgar (26 in 29 balls) attempted a reverse-sweep against Taijul and lost his off-stump, much like Mushfiqur had done earlier against Harmer.
Erwee and Keegan Petersen maintained the brisk run-rate but the latter, on 14, was trapped leg before just before tea to a Taijul Islam arm-ball that went straight on.
The need for quick runs led to a number of wickets falling after the break with Erwee (41) and Temba Bavuma (30) perishing in the cause while Kyle Verreynne played a delightful unbeaten cameo of 39 in 30 balls before Mulder’s dismissal prompted Elgar to call the batsmen in.
As it turned out, the 9.1 overs remaining was more than enough for the home team to severely wound their opponents.
For Bangladesh, spinners Taijul Islam (3-67) and Mehidy Miraz (2-34) were again the main wicket-takers with Taijul taking an outstanding match haul of 9-202.
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