SA v BAN, 2nd Test, Day 3 Review: Visitors crumble deliriously; South Africa register their biggest Test win

This was a result which many expected, but South Africa to annihilate the highly confident Bangladeshi unit this way was completely unexpected. There was no intent or courage shown by them and it seemed as though we were watching the Bangla team from the early 2000s, a phase where they barely competed well with any team.

The Proteas absolutely humiliated their visitors and registered their biggest Test win by innings. Resuming their innings on day 3, it was pretty much palpable that the game would be done on Sunday. They were stuck in a predicament at 92/4 whilst following on and clearly, the pace of the South African fast bowlers was too hard to handle for them.

Mushfiqur Rahim, who was struck on the head off Olivier on day 2 was taken to the hospital. This seemed to have played a game in the batsmen’s minds as they really kept dancing to the bowlers’ tunes. Mahmudullah and Litton Das showed some temporary resilience which lasted a very short period of time. They played some beautiful cover-drives and were very harsh to anything that was off-target.

The scoreboard kept ticking at over 4 runs per over and clearly, the fast bowlers were given a rough time. After adding striking 9 boundaries in no time and collecting an aggregate of 43 runs for the fifth wicket, the most promising partnership of the day was put to bed by Phehlukwayo. Litton Das left his off-stump nowhere and the ball which moved back in a little bit to the southpaw sent the stumps for cart-wheeling.

Rabada gets a 10-fer, packs the Tigers sooner than expected

Immediately after Litton Das’ wicket, Mahmudullah attempted a lacklustre short off a delivery which never really deserved a wicket. The ball went at a good speed towards the gully but Dean Elgar made no mistake in gifting Kagiso Rabada his 100th Test scalp. One of the finest exponents of the art currently, Rabada promises to be one of the greatest in South African history.

Sabbir Rahman was next, who tentatively pushed at the delivery outside off and was caught at the slips by Faf du Plessis. Rabada then got his 9th wicket in the game by going round the wicket to the left-handed batsman Taijul Islam and squaring him up. His leg-stump got shattered and Bangladesh was 8 down for 147 in no time.

It didn’t take much time for the dynamic fast bowler to complete his 3rd 10-wicket haul as he bowled an absolute screamer to Rubel Hussain. A perfect blockhole from the youngster made the batsman go nuts and rattled the stumps. Completely against the run of play, there was this brilliant moment in the day when Mustafizur Rahman danced down the ground to clobber Phehlukwayo for a six over long-off.

Phehlukwayo completed the formality by taking his revenge against Mustafizur. He again swinged his bat hard but this time, the bowler hit the target and South Africa completed an innings and 254 run victory. It was a reality check for the Tigers, who were doing spectacularly well in their backyard, but got dismantled ruthlessly away from home. The ODI series between the sides wil commence on 15th October and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll perform in the format they fancy the most.

Brief Scores

South Africa first innings: 573/4 declared in 120 overs (Dean Elgar 113, Aiden Makram 143, Faf du Plessis 135*, Hashim Amla 132)

Bangladesh first innings: 147 all out in 42.5 overs (Liton Das 70; Kagiso Rabada 5/33, Duanne Olivier 3/40)

Bangladesh second innings (F/O): 172 all out in 42.4 overs (Mahmudullah 43; Kagiso Rabada 5/30, Andile Phehlukwayo 3/36)

Player of the match: Kagiso Rabada (10/63 in the match)

Player of the series: Dean Elgar (330 runs in the series)