da marjack bet： South Africa all but batted Bangladesh out of the game afterthey piled on a massive score after choosing to bat first
Anand Vasu14-Apr-2003South Africa all but batted Bangladesh out of the game afterthey piled on a massive score after choosing to bat first. WhileMohammad Ashraful’s brave resistance yielded a half-centuryand helped Bangladesh make a fist of it for a while, it was nevergoing to be enough to alter the result. The gulf between thesides grew apparent as the required run-rate sprinted away fromthe scoring rate. The end, when it came in the 50th over, sawBangladesh reach 211, well short of the required 295.On a featherbed Dhaka wicket, South Africa stitched togethertheir 294 for 3 against Bangladesh without so much as strainingsinews. Their batting was a passage of play with few thrills – nobatsman went after the bowling, no bowler caught the eye.Openers Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith too provided a goodstart with minimum fuss. They took ones and twos at will andrarely missed out on opportunities to strike boundaries.It was only in the 17th over that the opening stand of 112 wasbroken. Mohammad Rafique had Smith stumped, deceiving himwith a gentle floater. Smith showed his disappointment, swinginghis bat angrily and cursing himself for squandering a goldenopportunity.If Smith was unlucky to miss out, Gibbs was plain stupid to doso. Jacques Rudolph eased a slow delivery down to long off andset off briskly. With the single completed, the batsmen turnedwith plenty of time to make it two. But instead of running hard,Gibbs merely sauntered across, and a good throw from JavedOmar found the stumps via Alok Kapali. Gibbs’ run-a-ball 62 cameto a sorry end and South Africa had needlessly lost anotherwicket (133 for 2).The removal of both openers with slightly more than 20 oversbowled gave Bangladesh a chance to put pressure on a SouthAfrican middle order short of a batsman of the highest quality.With Jacques Rudolph and Boeta Dippenaar attempting to getset, the bowlers slipped in a few tight overs.Try as they might though, they could not pick up wickets.Rudolph began to step up the scoring rate, motoring on to 44 off45 balls, before a lapse in concentration cost him his wicket. Hechopped hard at a short, wide ball from Rafique, but onlymanaged a top edge to Tareq Aziz at short third man (189 for3).From there on, with wickets in hand, some South Africans wouldhave looked at a 300-plus total. After all, India did exactly thatagainst them yesterday. The logic was sound, barring the simplefact that Neil McKenzie (55*) could not strike the ball as freelyas Dinesh Mongia, and Dippenaar (66*) could not pace hisinnings as well as Mohammad Kaif.A largely charmless partnership of 105 runs in 111 balls tookSouth Africa close to 300 though, and it was more than enoughto send Bangladesh plummeting to a 34th successive ODI defeat.Mohammad Ashraful kept the South African bowlers at bay foralmost 30 overs, raising Bangladeshi hopes with an exuberant 52- by far the top score for Bangladesh. Crisp strokes flew off hisblade, most notably when the ball was dropped short. A range ofpull shots – from the orthodox to the bizarre – saw him strikeseven boundaries. It was Paul Adams who finally dismissedAshraful, inducing an edge when he tried a flashy cut shot (112for 4).The fall of Ashraful marked the beginning of the end ofBangladesh’s charge towards victory. Khaled Mahmud threw hisbat around for 40, and aided by some uncharacteristically ineptcatching, he helped Bangladesh to bat out 49.1 overs. In theend though, Bangladesh finished adrift by 83 runs. ShaunPollock, with 4 for 37, was easily the pick of the bowlers.Perhaps this will persuade Smith to open the bowling with Pollockin future games.