South Africa Cricket
Shakib Al Hasan would have hoped to win the match against South Africa, which was a must win match for them to qualify to the quarter finals. Unfortunately the ‘Tigers’ as they are called, succumbed to the pressure and displayed an annoying batting performance, to lead to their near ouster from the World Cup.
Bangladesh at the moment is on 6 points and if they had won they would tallied to 8 in their 6 games. At the moment they are at equals with West Indies in terms of points except for the fact that the Windies have one more game to go against India on the 20th. Bangladesh’s loss however helped England and India to qualify into the quarter finals. The only chance for the Bangladeshi’s perhaps would be an improbable huge margin victory of India over West Indies which would result in them having a higher run rate than the Windies and thus qualify.
South Africa went into the match, resting key players like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel as they had already qualified into the quarter finals. Bangladesh bowled clinically but allowed South Africa to score a competitive total of 284-8 in 50 overs. Amla (51), Smith (45) and Kallis (69) played well at the top of the order along with middle order batsmen Plessis who scored a run a ball 52.
South Africa bowled well even with its second line bowling attack, with the likes of Tsotsobe and Peterson picking 3 and 4 wickets each. Unfortunately Bangladesh was dismissed for a meager 78 which happens to be the side’s lowest total in ODI cricket versus South Africa.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan said at the post match presentation that, “The expectations were high among our people because we had played so well over the past 12 months, but we let them down. We have not played good cricket at the World Cup and I feel very sorry for our fans. They deserved much more than we gave them. “
He further acknowledged that they should have given twenty runs lesser to the Proteas but then he goes on to say that they knew that the match was over once they lost four quick wickets. He accepts “This was a pressure match for us. We knew we had to win. The team just could not take the pressure.”
On the other hand South African captain Smith was pretty happy with his sides bowling performance in spite of the absence of bowlers like Steyn and Morkel.
Lonwabo Tsotsobe was adjudged the Man of the Match.
Tags: Bangladesh, Cricket, England, India, Proteas, Quarter Finals, South Africa, World Cup
