Johannesburg — Bangladesh made a strong comeback in the afternoon session of the first Test on Thursday, claiming three Proteas wickets through some disciplined bowling and one brilliant piece of fielding from Mehidy Hasan.
At tea, South Africa was on 165/3 with vice captain Temba Bavuma, who is playing in his 50th Test on 22 and the debutant Ryan Rickelton on 11
It was a much different session from the first in which the home team had taken advantage of lots of loose bowling to score 95 runs in 25 overs. Bangladesh adjusted their lengths, bowling a lot fuller than they did in the morning and through that built the pressure which eventually led to the dismissals of the two South African openers, Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee.
Ebadot Hossain set the tone. He had been the most guilty in the first season of bowling too short,but after the lunch break, despite some full tosses initially, had the batters coming forward and in the over in which he dismissed Elgar, got the South African captain thinking about whether to come forward or stay on the back foot.
In addition he’d dragged Elgar, so dominant in the morning, across to the offside and then got one to lift sightly, catching glove and giving wicket-keeper Liton Das an easy catch. Elgar had batted fluently in the morning, but the pressure from Bangladesh limited his scoring later, and he added just seven runs to his lunch time score, making 67 off 101 balls with 11 fours.
He’d shared a 113-run stand for the first wicket with Sarel Erwee, South Africa’s first century stand on home soil by the opening batters, since the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in 2020.
Erwee, had looked troubled since the drinks break in the morning, and struggled to time the ball throughout his stay at the crease. However he’d battled hard and made 41, so would have been furious that he got out to the spinner Mehidy, dragging a ball from wide outside off onto his leg-stump.
Those two wickets came just five balls apart, and lifted the Bangladeshi team’s spirits. Keegan Petersen had played well although eh had a moment of good fortune on 18 when TV technology showed he made have edged a delivery from Taskin Ahmed through to Das. However Bangladesh chose not to refer to the TV official.
A moment of magic followed shortly after from Mehidy. Bavuma pushed one into the covers and called Petersen through for a quick single, with Mehidy diving and in one motion, while still on the ground, flinging the ball in and hitting the stumps with Petersen centimetres short of his ground.
The right hander had made 19, hitting three fours, but it was a session changing wicket for the tourists.
Rickelton got off the mark in Test cricket with an audacious reverse sweep for four. There was a more conventional boundary a few balls later when he dispatched Hossain to long-off with a beautiful straight drive.
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