Last Updated on 7 years by Charbel Coorey
It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. Quinton De Kock and Hashim Amla barely raised a sweat, mowing down Bangladesh’s 278/7 with over 7 overs to go, in Kimberley on Sunday.
South Africa look a well oiled machine, but given how disappointing Bangladesh have been, are we getting too far ahead of ourselves thinking South Africa won’t lose a series in their season, their longest one yet?
For the moment, they are well on track to take a 2-0 lead in Paarl, simply because their opponents don’t have the know-how or quality to ask proper questions. De Kock and Amla made the Bangladeshi bowlers look park quality, following on from the thrashing South Africa gave Bangladesh in the Tests.
This is almost the same Bangladesh attack that made South Africa look ordinary in Bangladesh in 2015. The difference is incredible.
So where to for Bangladesh? It’s got to the point where just being competitive will count for something. As a Bangladesh fan, if they manage to take a wicket, it will be met with a cheer as loud as the cheers in Dhaka and Chittagong.
Dating back to the Champions Trophy semi-final hammering by India, Bangladesh have taken just 1 wicket in their last 83 overs, and look absolutely toothless in foreign conditions. Significant blame should be placed on the management and coaches for this, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Can a team bounce back just a few days after being destroyed so badly that even Faf Du Plessis felt sorry?
Key to a South Africa win
Key to a Bangladesh win
Possible line ups:
Stats & Facts:
- If South Africa win this game, they will leapfrog India to top spot in the ODI rankings.
- 282/0 is the highest successful run chase in ODI history without losing a wicket, overtaking Jason Roy and Alex Hales for England in 2016 v Sri Lanka
- Quinton De Kock and Hashim Amla became South Africa’s most prolific ODI opening pair, overtaking Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs.
- Hashim Amla became the fastest ever to reach 26 ODI centuries (154 innings), beating Virat Kohli who reached the mark in 166 innings.
- In their last 83 overs of ODI cricket, Bangladesh have taken 1 wicket. Since the start of their New Zealand tour last December, Bangladesh away from the subcontinent have taken 55 wickets at a high average of 44.74. Excluding New Zealand and Ireland, Bangladesh away from the subcontinent in this period have taken 4 wickets in 5 matches at an average of 234.5 runs per wicket.
- South Africa’s batsmen across 2 Tests and 1 ODI have plundered 1,598 runs at an average of 122.92 runs per wicket.
- Shakib Al Hasan became the fifth player to achieve the 5,000 runs-200 wickets double in ODIs. He is the quickest to achieve this, doing so in 178 matches.
- Mushfiqur Rahim’s unbeaten 110 was the first time a Bangladesh player scored a century against South Africa in any format.
