'Any captain would field first in SA'

It was such a day for Bangladesh that choosing someone to send to the post-day press conference must have been a difficult decision for the team management. Usually, the best performer of the day is sent, even if the performance was not much to write home about. On particularly bad days, and the opening day of the Test series against South Africa in Potchefstroom during which the home side reached 298 for one qualifies as such a day, someone from the coaching staff fronts up.

But with the coaching staff presumably party to the seemingly catastrophic decision to field first on a pretty flat track, they were not going to come out. So it was the 25-year-old Sabbir Rahman, who had a hand in Bangladesh's sole success when he ran out debutant Aiden Martram three runs short of a most deserving hundred, who stood in the firing line.

The decision to field first caught everyone -- be it the television commentators, the South African journalists in the press box, home skipper Faf du Plessis or debutant Martram -- by surprise. Sabbir however thought that the mistake was in reading the pitch.

"We did not expect this kind of wicket," the batsman said. "It's a flat wicket. We were not able to bowl many wicket taking deliveries. We tried to bowl in good areas and check the runs. That was our target today.

"It's difficult to judge a wicket after just watching. You have to play to understand the wicket. We sussed the wicket after playing on it."

Leaving aside the ease with which an international cricketer admitted that a whole cricketing set-up has failed to read a pitch that was devoid of green grass, the fact is that assertion is not correct. Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim is on record as having said on the eve of the Test that the Senwes Park wicket looked to be dry and will probably take turn as the days wear on.

One possibility could have been that the early morning cloud cover influenced the decision, either to exploit seam and swing or to avoid the same from the South Africans.

"Cloudy or sunny weather does not influence you to field first. You are playing in South Africa, of course you will win the toss and field. Any captain would do that," Sabbir said confidently. "There is nothing more to say."

Except there is. In South Africa the team that won the toss has fielded first a total of 65 times. The number of times the team opted to bat first is 156.

Sabbir's utterances, it seemed, were in keeping with a performance that was clueless from toss to stumps. 

He had one more gem when asked about the total they were hoping to restrict South Africa to. "If they bat for three days then we don't know how many runs they will score, they may score 700 or even 1000. We don't have any target. We have to restrict them to as low a total as possible.

"Yes they can bat for three days. If we don't bowl well they can even bat for five days as well. So we have to bowl in good areas to restrict them and take wickets."

That seems easier said than done, especially if his words are an indicator.