Tigers end day 1 on top

Bangladesh openers saw off two overs from Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander to end a fantastic day one for the Tigers in the 1st Test of the series.

South Africa collapsed from 136/1 to lose their nine wickets for 112 runs as Mustafizur Rahman turned the match on its head with three wickets in four balls.

In his debut, the Bangladeshi pacer took four wickets for 37 runs in 17.4 overs, while Jubair Hossain chipped in with three to derail South Africa’s first innings at Chittagong.

South Africa’s tail wagged appreciably with Temba Bavuma leading the way. Bavuma’s 54 saved his team’s blushes as the last four wickets produced 75 crucial runs.

Earlier, Temba Bavuma was the last man out for South Africa when he became Mustafizur’s fourth victim of the day.

The top-scorer for Proteas held the innings together with grit and determination, and scored 54 runs from 108 balls with five boundaries to his name.

Dale Steyn’s stay at the crease lasted only two balls when the South African fast bowler skewered his shot to Tamim Iqbal at mid-off to give Jubair his third wicket of the first innings.

South Africa’s bad day at office got worse when a half-tracker from Jubair gave Bangladesh a lucky break.

Harmer’s ful-blooded pull saw Mominul Haque at short leg to take evasive action, but the ball stuck between the fielder’s arm and stomach to the utter disbelief of the Proteas batter.

Harmer was playing safe with Bavuma, their stand of 29 runs was extremely useful for South Africa’s tail to wag in desperation.

Jubair Hossain gave Bangladesh their seventh wicket of the day when Vernon Philander edged to slip after scoring 24 runs from 36 balls.

Jubair’s flighted delivery spun sharply to leave Philander prodding from the crease, and Shakib made no mistake at slip.

The 35-run partnership between Philander and Bavuma gave some respectability to South Africa’s total after the visitors were struggling at 173 for 6

Quinton de Kock found his off-stump knocked out by a full, low delivery from Mustafizur as the left-armer took three wickets in four balls.

Bangladeshi fans jumped out of their seats to acknowledge Mustafizur’s awesome performance as he rocked South Africa in his 14th over of the day.

The Bangladeshi left-arm pacer was bowling with his tail up and produced a fine delivery to trap JP Duminy in front of the stumps the next ball after dismissing Proteas captain.

Mustafizur Rahman got Hashim Amla as his debut wicket in Test matches when the Proteas batter pushed away from body with firm hands and was caught behind.

Amla looked steady during his knock of 13 runs from 28 balls.

Soon after Taijul sent back Elgar, Shakib Al Hasan picked his 41st Test-wicket at Chittagong when his arm-ball sent back the in-form Faf du Plessis for 48.

Faf looked good for a big knock, but failed to read Shakib’s arm-ball which kept low and struck him well below the knee-roll in front of off.

South Africa’s T20I captain played 122 balls and smashed five fours in his innings.

Kept quiet with tight bowling, Dean Elgar became frustrated as he neared his fifty and gave his wicket away at 47.

Elgar went for a vicious cut but feathered Taijul’s delivery to Litton, who took the catch on the second attempt. Proteas opener faced 111 balls and registered three hits across the fence.

Bangladesh fought back in the 2nd session with disciplined bowling to dismiss Elgar and du Plessis in quick succession.

The second wicket stand of 50 between Faf du Plessis and Dean Elgar placed their team in a stronger position after the solid opening partnership.

South Africa reached 104 for the loss of one wicket with Faf du Plessis and Dean Elgar batting responsibly to end the first session in their team's favour.

Mahmudullah gave Bangladesh the first breakthrough when he had Stiaan van Zyl caught down the leg-side against the run of play.

Stiaan looked comfortable at the middle with 34 runs before he tried to glance the delivery from Mahmudullah fine, and wicketkeeper Litton Das took a superb catch to the cheer of the home crowd.

South Africa’s openers Elgar and van Zyl brought up their 50-run stand quite comfortably after skipper Hashim Amla won the toss and opted to bat in the first test of the series at Chittagong against Bangladesh.

South Africa started strong with regular freebies and inconsistent length from Bangladesh bowlers.

Bangladesh will seek to carry their limited-overs success into Tests and build solidity but they will have to contend with a South African side reinforced by the arrival of Dale Steyn,

Tigers coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes that the series will be decided by how well the hosts handle South Africa's 'world-class pace attack.'

Nasir, Soumya, who was the Man of the Series in ODIs, and Rubel miss the cut.

Bangladesh Team

Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (Captain), Liton Das (Wicketkeeper), Jubair Hossain, Mohammad Shahid, Taijul Islam and Mustafizur Rahman

South Africa Team

D Elgar, S van Zyl, HM Amla (Captain), F du Plessis, T Bavuma, Q de Kock (Wicketkeeper), JP Duminy, VD Philander, DW Steyn, SR Harmer and M Morkel