da esport bet： South Africa took 10.5 overs to knock off the 27 runs needed to clinch a hard-fought five-wicket in the first Test in Mirpur
The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran25-Feb-2008
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How they were out
Shahdat Hossain’s nine wickets in the match were not enough for Bangladesh, who suffered yet another loss © AFP
And so the drought continues. More than seven years after they weregranted Test status, and in their 44th match against non-Zimbabweanopposition, Bangladesh slipped up yet again, squandering the advantagesgained on the second day to subside to a five-wicket defeat on the fourthmorning. It took South Africa 10.5 overs to knock off the 27 needed, butthe result was never in doubt after Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and AshwellPrince had built on a superb spell from Jacques Kallis.Prince, who played a couple of pleasing drives off Shahadat Hossain, wasunlucky not to be there at the end, given out leg before though thedelivery from Shahadat pitched outside the line of leg stump. Aleem Dargave it, but there was to be no final twist in this tale.AB de Villiers, who endured several uncomfortable moments against theleft-arm spin of Mohammad Rafique, clipped two fours of Shahadat to bringthe scores level, and Mark Boucher then cut one past point to start thecelebrations in the South African camp. Prohibitive favourites before theseries started, they had been made to work exceptionally hard by aBangladeshi team inspired by Shahadat’s nine wickets.Bangladesh will look back ruefully at their inability to post 200 ineither innings. The opening day offered plenty of insight into theirbatting woes, with six batsmen spending reasonable time in the middlebefore throwing it away. The main culprit was Mohammad Ashraful, thecaptain, who sauntered to 34 from 26 balls before an over-exuberant chargeat Johan Botha changed the complexion of the match.Jamie Siddons, the new coach, will take the positives from this match,especially the bowling of Shahadat and the restrained 74 from JunaidSiddique. But he also needs to look at a relatively listless display fromMashrafe Mortaza, and cavalier strokes from too many of the batsmen. SouthAfrica are unlikely to be as sloppy in the second Test.