da dobrowin： Bangladesh came to this World Cup with high hopes of winning the Platecompetition
Charlie Austin27-Jan-2000Bangladesh came to this World Cup with high hopes of winning the Platecompetition. They would have almost certainly done so had it been forthe wretched rain the first week, which knocked South Africa out ofthe Super League.To beat a professional and experienced South African unit requiredheroism and fortune in equal measure. Neither was forthcomingand they eventually lost this game by 81 runs in the 48th over.Nevertheless they have once again highlighted to show to the worldthat Bangladesh’s cricket is presently developing at a rapid pace.With a development programme in place and talent in abundance it willnot be long before they get the Test status.South Africa will have mixed feelings about winning this. Havingfailed to qualify for the Super League they were expected to win it -anything less would have been humiliating. With nothing to gain andplenty to lose they have professionally beaten all their opponents.Deep down though they will still be desperately disappointed about notcompeting with the big boys in Colombo.South Africa’s domination of this match started early when they wonthe toss and decided to bat. In bright sunshine and in front of asparse crowd the openers, G. Smith (51) and Puttick (19) , compiled 62for the first wicket. The highest partnership of the match. WhenPuttick was out Rudolph took over and South Africa progressed serenelyto 91-1.Just when we were contemplating the record score of the tournamentBangladesh started to fight back. Inspired by the spin of MossadekHossain (2-39), Rajin Saleh (1-31), and Mahfuz Kabir (1-29) theyreduced South Africa to 131-5 and then 213 all out. The SA batsmanfound it difficult to raise the tempo against the spinners and soonbecame frustrated.Bangladesh will have rued a sloppy performance in the field, whichincluded missed run outs, overthrows and miss-fields. They probablygave away 15-20 runs in the innings.When Bangladesh started their innings, a good start was off paramountimportance. Alas it was not to be and three wicket fell in the firstsix overs to leave them reeling on 17-3. The pace and bounce generatedby the South African new ball bowlers, Senekal and Morkel, appeared tobe too much of a handful for their batsmen.The only batsman to look at ease was Hannan Sarker (51). His solidinnings that included some wonderfully balanced straight drives, wasBangladesh’s only chance of victory. When he was bowled by a fastyorker from Senkal the result became inevitable. The end was slow incoming and really became quite tiresome as Bangladesh gave up tryingto win the game and treated the last ten overs as a net practice. Wellthey are preparing for the future.