South Africa aim for clean sweep against depleted Bangladesh after Durban demolition

CURRENT WTC STANDINGS

Overview

South Africa v Bangladesh
St George's Park, Port Elizabeth
8-12 April, 10:00 AM local time

After losing the ODI series to Bangladesh, South Africa bounced back strongly in the first Test with a thumping 220-run win. The batters did their jobs, posting solid totals in both innings, but it was the spinners that turned the game in their favour in both innings.

Simon Harmer ran through the Bangladesh top 4 in the first innings and in the second, Keshav Maharaj was unplayable as the visitors were bowled out for their second-lowest Test total.

South Africa ticked most of their boxes in the first Test and will be hoping to solidify their second spot in the WTC standings with a win in the second Test.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have a mountain to climb in the second Test. The morale of the team is bound to be down after the first Test and to make things worse, they will be without Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam for the next game. Taskin injured his right shoulder while Shoriful sustained a left ankle ligament injury during training ahead of the Test series.

Bangladesh will need their senior players like captain Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim to step up in the final Test if they are to make a game of it.

Remember the last time

South Africa posted 367 in the first innings of the first Test on the back of fifties from Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma. Bangladesh had the hosts on the ropes at 245/6 but lower-order contributions propelled South Africa to a good total.

Bangladesh too were struggling at 101 but Mahmudul Hasan Joy's century held the innings together. However, they conceded a 69-run lead going into the second innings.

Elgar scored his second fifty of the match in the innings, helping South Africa to 204.

Chasing 274, the visitors had no answer to the spin of Keshav Maharaj, who returned with figures of 7/32 as Bangladesh succumbed to 53 all out, their second-lowest total in Test history.

What they said

Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque after losing the first Test:"We can certainly bounce back. We played well in four out of the five days. We batted poorly in the last few overs yesterday and on the fifth day. There are enough positives to take from this Test match, to suggest to me that we can bounce back easily in the next game."