Mashrafe Mortaza desires to have someone of AB de Villiers' caliber in the team

The South African team has already established their dominion early in their ongoing series against Bangladesh after they won both the Test matches. And now the Proteas have done an encore of their performance in the ODIs as well. With last night’s win, South Africa clinched the 3 match series 2-0.

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza was left in despair and clueless after his bowling unit faced the wrath of AB de Villiers, who single-handedly took the game beyond their reach with a 176 off 104 balls, providing South Africa with a cushion to their lead, with one game to go.  However, despite the loss, Mortaza revealed that he would love to have someone of de Villiers’s calibre in the team.

The Bangladeshi skipper, on the other hand, was visibly shaken by the de Villiers knock and failed to put it in words to articulate the impact of his innings. The countries next meet at the Buffalo Park in East London on Sunday for their final ODI encounter. “Every team lacks an AB de Villiers. He can destroy any bowling attack on his day. Shakib had brought us back a little bit after taking two wickets,” said the Bangladeshi skipper.

The 33-year-old former captain smashed as many as 7 sixes and 15 boundaries. Barring a miscued pull that landed safely, de Villiers didn’t offer any opening to the opposition. Guided by his impeccable innings, South Africa succeeded in posting a mammoth total of 353 for 6 before a unified bowling effort from their bowlers saw Bangladesh being bowled out for a meagre 249.

AB’s knock changed the course of the match

“If we could have got the wicket of AB, then it could have been a different story. AB has played these type of innings a few times in his career now. As a bowler anything less than 100%, he is going to pounce on you. If we could have removed him early, we may as well have won the game,” revealed Mashrafe Mortaza according to Cricbuzz.

He further added, “If he got out at 100, we could have still been in the game. The next 76 runs made a lot of difference. He can destroy any team on his day. There were a few chances here and there but it wasn’t our day. Hopefully, we will bounce back.