'Pretty happy with how we bowled'
The second day ended with Bangladesh recovering from 36 for two and reaching stumps on 127 for three in response to South Africa's mammoth 496 for three declared, but the talk at the post-day press conference still surrounded the decision at the toss that put the visitors in that position in the first place.
After the first day Sabbir Rahman came to the presser with a lot of confidence, declaring that any captain would have won the toss and opted to field when playing in South Africa, even though the facts disagree vehemently.
Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, who bowled 26 luckless overs for 88 runs in South Africa's run fest, was more measured in towing the team's party line of the decision being down to misreading the pitch.
"We expected more bounce in the pitch because on the adjacent wicket there was some bounce and it was skiddy. We didn't expect it to be such a slow and flat track," said Taskin. "The captain and coach took the team's opinion. So this decision was the team's, not any individual's."
There can however be only so much blame on the fickle whims of a coin, because as Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis said, South Africa would have batted had they called correctly and Bangladesh would still have been in this position, which was largely down to their insipid and haphazard bowling performance on the first day, which continued on to the second morning when there was no attempt to create pressure and part-time off-spinner Mahmudullah Riyad was used while the ball was still new.
There was however a change after lunch, when after the wicket of Hashim Amla -- which itself was down to the positioning of a point fielder largely absent in the morning -- in the first over tighter fields and more purposeful bowling resulted in a session of just 85 runs in 29 overs for two wickets. Taskin was however not forthcoming about whether the change was due to fresh plans during lunch.
"We had different plans for each batsman, and tried to stick to those.
"We were disappointed at not getting enough wickets. We didn't bowl too badly. If we did, it would have been around 600 runs. Still, we are pretty happy; we bowled really well.
"Definitely," he asserted when asked whether he thought it was still possible to avoid defeat. "We are not thinking about losing at all. We will go for a draw if we can't win."
South Africa's declaration at tea was also a cause for speculation yesterday, with many wondering if Du Plessis had declared knowing that Tamim Iqbal -- off the field for 49 minutes before tea -- would not be able to immediately open, a tactic similar to that employed by Du plessis against David Warner in Adelaide in November 2016.
"They declared suddenly. Tamim bhai was probably treating a niggle. It happened so suddenly that he couldn't open the batting unfortunately."
Dean Elgar, who scored 199 in South Africa's innings, however denied the declaration being a Tamim-centred one. "I don't think we thought about that. We were thinking about the declaration from lunch, but scoring became tough. We would have liked to get more on the board. But it's still a very good position."
Comments