South Africa found themselves in the driver’s seat after the umpires called the players off due to bad light on the second day of the series decider in Chattogram against Bangladesh. Having piled on a massive score of 575 runs, South Africa had the hosts on the mat as Bangladesh lost four wickets in just nine overs before the stumps. Bangladesh trail by a massive margin of 537 runs and the writing seems to be on the wall unless the hosts pull out something out of the bag.
It was yet another day dominated by the South African batters as Tony do Zorzi continued his merry run having been ton-up on the opening day and the likes of David Bedingham and Wiaan Mulder also hammered Bangladesh further. Bedingham wasn’t afraid to play his shots and took the attack to the opposition while de Zorzi was as solid as ever.
The left-hander would be gutted to miss out on a double-century as Taijaul Islam, who went on to register a fifer, trapped him LBW in front on 177. That was a period where Bangladesh got three wickets in a span of five runs and four in a space of 37. It seemed like the tide was changing and Bangladesh could have shut the door down. However, all-rounder Wiaan Mulder had other ideas.
If Bangladesh thought that losing four wickets in quick succession would affect South Africa’s approach or scoring, they were terribly wrong. Mulder and Senuran Muthusamy just kept belting the ball out of the ground. With a huge score behind their backs, Muthusamy and Mulder both took their chances which came off and Bangladesh had no answers to the counter-attack. The partnership was 100 by the tea and the declaration seemed near.
Mulder had gotten past his fifty and after tea, the duo played a lot faster. As Mulder kept getting closer to his century, South Africa delayed their declaration before the all-rounder finally got to his milestone with a six. Stand-in captain Aiden Markram called in his players at that very moment as South Africa had enough.
What followed was a mad period of 40 minutes where the Proteas flexed their bowling resources. Bangladesh have a lot of work to do and their first target will be to avoid the follow-on, which itself is 338 runs away.
