Mark Smit
21 November 2008
Bloemfontein — The Bangladesh batsmen undid some wonderful work by their bowlers yesterday, with a horrible display to finish day two of the first cricket Test against SA on 20/1 in their follow-on innings.
This came after they were blasted out for 153 in their first innings, in reply to SA's 441/9 declared.
It must have been desperately disappointing for the bowlers, led by left-arm spinner Shakib al Hasan, who took 5/130 -- including a great spell of 5/35 in 13 overs either side of lunch -- to see their fine work wasted after taking the last eight South African wickets for just 114 runs.
SA, starting on 299/1, suffered a collapse and ended on 441/9, with Paul Harris not batting after fracturing his thumb at pre-match training on Wednesday.
It was a wonderful fight back on a responsive pitch by the Bangladeshis, when the South Africans had looked set for a total well in excess of 500 runs. But it did not help, because their batting collapsed like a house of cards in the face of hostile bowling from a three-man South African pace attack and the spin of Harris.
Makhaya Ntini showed a welcome return to form, bowling with some of his old fire to take 3/20, while Dale Steyn terrorised the little Tigers from the other end with 2/38 in eight overs.
But the woes of Morné Morkel continue. His eight overs cost 55 runs -- more than a third of the Bangladesh total -- and his one wicket, that of Junaid Siddique, was more a result of bad batting than good bowling.
Morkel bowled three no balls and four wides in his eight overs, and is looking nothing like a potential threat for the upcoming series against Australia.
Facing a deficit of 288, Bangladesh were asked to bat again with light fading, and 11 overs left to play out.
Earlier in the day, Graeme Smith took his overnight score of 138 to 157, before being bowled by Mahbubul Alam. His innings lasted seven hours and two minutes, and contained 17 fours and a six.
Hashim Amla, on 103 overnight, added just nine runs before becoming Mushrafe Mortaza's lone victim. Both were bowled by superb deliveries which moved sharply off the wicket.
Then followed a disappointing procession, with the inevitable exception of Ashwell Prince, who again proved his value at No5, with a feisty, fighting 59 amid the carnage.
Jacques Kallis went for 16, AB de Villiers for three, Mark Boucher for 15, and Morkel for eight.
Before the match, captain Smith had called for focus and control. He will have been bitterly disappointed by the absence of both from SA's lower order.
While not wishing to take anything away from the Bangladesh bowlers, who were vastly improved after their first day's efforts, the lower South African order showed nothing of the application they are going to need playing against Australia.
De Villiers stormed down the pitch to take a wild swing at Shakib, and managed to get himself caught behind and stumped.
The verdict was caught behind, and the verdict on his shot was simply "stupid".
Kallis came down the pitch to play a lofted drive. He got an inside edge, and was caught at mid-on.
Morkel skied a top edge trying to hook, and that was the bulk of the middle order back in the hut, with just 42 runs between them.
Smith never attended the after-play press conference last night, sending fellow centurion Amla instead. It was a pity, because it would have been interesting to hear what he thought of his middle order's efforts.
For the one Bangladesh batsman who did show some guts against the South African pace barrage -- Mushfiqur Rahmin, who made a gutsy 48 -- the day ended badly anyway when he was reported for dissent, and had to face a disciplinary hearing.
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