MOMENTS
THE SHAFIUL-TASKIN CONNECTION
The tour could not have gotten much worse for Shafiul Islam and Taskin Ahmed. Along with Nasir Hossain, they had broken team curfew on the night the 3-0 ODI whitewash was cemented by South Africa, creating further turmoil within the team. Shafiul had not played a match since the first Test, and finally having gotten a look-in for yesterday's first T20I, the formidable task of bowling his first over, the sixth of the innings, to an ominous-looking AB de Villiers took a turn for the comically ironic. De Villiers pulled Shafiul's fourth ball towards short fine-leg and who but Taskin there fell over the ball and conceded a boundary. Things did not get much better for the duo as Shafiul conceded 33 off his two overs and Taskin 21 off two.
IMRUL'S BLINDER
There has not been much to celebrate for Bangladesh on this tour so when they got De Villiers out without the maestro having done irreparable damage it was important that they held on to that momentum. Imrul Kayes did just that when South Africa skipper stepped out to hit opposite number Shakib Al Hasan out of the ground in the 13th over. The ball went like Ravi Shastri's famed 'tracer bullet' high and to the left of Imrul at long off, and he ran full tilt at the speeding ball and leapt to get a hand to it. He got enough of a hand to it for the ball to lob up and away from him, but he kept on running and put in a dive at full stretch to turn what would have been a good catch into a brilliant one.
SOUMYA'S REMINDER
Soumya Sarkar has been the object of much derision during this tour, much of which he has spent out of the team and when he did play, he got out edging early. But yesterday, as early as the second over of the chase, he showed just why he is rated highly by the team. With the most nonchalant of flicks, he deposited Beuran Hendricks over wide long on and into the crowd. Five fours and a further six followed, and although Bangladesh lost, Soumya can rest assured that for once, he has proven a point.
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