South Africa VS Bangladesh: A dominating victory in 1st test by the hosts
South African spinners continued their magical spell from the penultimate day to the final day to hand over a victory by 220 runs to their team. The Proteas ruled the test match on Kingsmead. Keshav Maharaj stood out as the bowler to finish with 10-0-32-7 and emerge as Player of the Match.
Captain's Knock by Dean ElgarCollapse continues for Bangladesh.
After losing three wickets for 11 runs on Day 4, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim opened the day for their team. However, Mushfiqur Rahim got bowled by Keshav Maharaj for a five-ball duck. It was his third wicket of the inning. The left-arm spinner didn’t slow down and went on to further strike down Litton Das and Yasir Ali’s wicket at 2 and 5 runs respectively, to complete his five-for. Simon Harmer took his third in the form of Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s duck. Bangladesh’s middle-order failed to give a fight or even make the slightest comeback in the game. Keshav Maharaj capped off the match by taking the final two wickets to dismiss the complete team on a small total of 53 runs. This is the second-lowest score in a test by Bangladesh, and the lowest score by any team at Kingsmead, Durban.
Dean Elgar expressed his joy on winning the match, “Pretty special, it's not often we've had a Test go into five days. He further added, “Lot of learning curves for a lot of guys. Knowing that the light was touch-and-go forces you to bowl the spinners and that worked out well for us. Extremely healthy for both guys (spinners), they are pushing each other in the nets. They are extremely competitive.
Mominul Haque on losing said, “We tried to play according to the merit of the ball. We wanted to play till the final session. Unfortunately, we lost three wickets last night, that was crucial. We are used to playing spin. We also know that Durban spins from the 3rd-4th day, we didn't capitalize well with the bat.” He further added, “We have one more match, we have to come back strongly. We'll try to capitalize on our opportunities. It'll be a good opportunity for the new guys to show their talent.”
With just two spinners: Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, South Africa dismissed the whole Bangladesh team in the second innings. Bangladesh batters could last only 19 overs on the crease and Protea’s bowlers took less than an hour on the final day to wrap the visitors and take the lead of 1-0 in the series. They have their second and final test match on 7th April.