T20 World Cup 2021: Match 30, South Africa vs Bangladesh – Who Said What

The 30^th match of the T20 World Cup 2021 took place between Bangladesh and South Africa at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abi Dhabi. As Bangladesh were already out of the race for the semifinals, the match was a chance for South Africa to strengthen their chance of making it to the next round and they rightly did so by winning the clash by six wickets.

Winning the toss, South Africa invited the struggling Bangladesh side to perform with the bat first and nothing really clicked for them from here. The absence of Shakib Al Hasan had already dented their setup and batters also failed to take responsibility in today’s game. Owing to Liton Das’ 24 and Mahedi Hasan’s 27, they could post just 84 runs on the board.

Anrich Nortje showcases class yet again for South Africa

Proteas bowlers breathed fire where in-form Anrich Nortje led the attack by picking three wickets and conceding at 2.40. Kagiso Rabada didn’t leave his chances and bagged three wickets alongside denying any room for run-scoring to Bangladesh. Nothing much was left for SA batters to do and it was an easy walk where Rassie van der Dussen’s 22 and Temba Bavuma’s 31 wrapped the chase game gracefully for them. Taskin Ahmed got two wickets for Bangladesh.

Losing skipper, Mahmudullah said:

I think the wicket was pretty good to bowl on in the first half. We weren’t good enough in the middle. That was a poor batting display, but having said that there was enough assistance in the pitch. Taskin has been bowling well in this tournament. We had the choice between Taskin and Fizzy, but we went with Taskin because he has been bowling well in this tournament. It’s frustrating, but we could have won two games. If we had won those games, it would have been a different story.

Winning skipper, Temba Bavuma said:

Quite a lot in the wicket early on, but full credit to KG and Nortje for exploiting it. It’s never easy when you have one guy bowling 150 and another getting so much out of the wicket with his skill. It’s a big game [against England], looking at the competition the way it is, they have had the better of us recently, and we would like to change that.

Player of the match, Kagiso Rabada said:

That wicket favoured the seamers and I’m just glad that today was my day. Every time we have the opportunity to practice, we try and implement what could possibly work for us. We always train hard, and today it paid off. It’s nice to see the ball swing, especially in T20 cricket, but it wasn’t a surprise, having seen that happen in the IPL games here. There’s a bit of bounce here, but it’s a bit two-paced, some balls skid through, but it’s probably the quickest wicket here [in the UAE]. [Anrich Nortje] has been in good form for a long time now, and I’m happy for him.