SA v BAN, 3rd ODI Review: South Africa belittle the visitors in yet another one-sided encounter

At this moment of time, South Africa must be thinking, coming out to bat and scoring 350 runs is like picking up a glass of water and drinking it. The ease with which they went past their Bangla opponents on Sunday throws light on the quality of their side and the inability of their counterparts to face big teams on their soil.

Faf du Plessis won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bat first. Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock lashed out hard against the new ball bowlers and yet again in the series, Bangladesh failed to pick up any wicket in the powerplay. De Kock upped the ante after the powerplay and soon registered a splendid half-century.

Mehidy Hasan, who was roped into the side in place of Nasir Hossain, provided the first breakthrough. Bavuma fell just two runs short of his fifty and the 119-run opening stand was put to bed. That didn’t provide any respite as Faf du Plessis joined the party and started smashing the bowlers around. De Kock lost his cool soon and gave his wicket away to Mehidy Hasan.

Debutant Aiden Markram and Du Plessis came to haunt the bowlers for the next few overs as they registered a humongous partnership for the 3rd wicket. Yet again, Bangladeshi bowlers showed no spirit and the Proteas made no mistake in taking full advantage. Both players registered half-centuries and the 100-run stand was completed in no time.

Faf du Plessis had some injury issues, which eventually led to him stepping off the field. He was batting on 91 at that point. Aiden Makram fell soon, but some good cameos from AB de Villiers, Farhan Behardien, and Kagiso Rabada propelled South Africa to a mammoth 369/6 in 50 overs.

First 5 wickets in the first 15 overs

Chasing down such a big total, it’s the worst possible start one can hope for. Proteas fast bowlers were breathing fire and the visitors were not interested to stay there for a long period of time. Dane Paterson ran through the top order with some crucial support coming from Kagiso Rabada and Willem Mulder.

He picked up the wickets of Imrul Kayes and Liton Das in successive overs and Rabada followed the suit to pick up Soumya Sarkar’s wicket. Phehlukwayo got the big fish Mushfiqur Rahim just after the powerplay was done and to rub more salt on the wound, Willem Mulder picked up his first ODI wicket as Mahmudullah was caught plumb in front of the stumps.

After getting reduced to 61/5 in 15 overs, Shakib Al Hasan and Sabbir Rahman got a decent partnership going. They didn’t look to do anything silly and kept the scoreboard ticking at a decent rate. Nevertheless, that scoring rate was not going to win them the game.

Aiden Markram, after contributing so well with the bat, came into bowl three overs and picked up Shakib and Sabbir’s wickets in a siglw over. Dane Paterson was brought back and he got the skipper Mortaza’s wicket. Imran Tahir picked up the final two wickets in quick succession to help his side win the game by 200 runs. South Africa blanked the Tigers in all departments and clinched the series 3-0 without much fuss.

Brief Scores

South Africa: 369/6 in 50 overs (Faf du Plessis 91, Aiden Markram 66, Temba Bavuma 48)

Bangladesh: 169 all out in 40.4 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 63; Dane Paterson 3/44, Aiden Markram 2/18)

Player of the match: Faf du Plessis

Player of the series: Quinton de Kock