Gqeberha — Wiaan Mulder is an enigma of South African cricket. Ask some people and they will eulogise about the boy wonder that former Lions coach Geoff Toyana believed was deserving of a first-class debut whilst still a schoolboy.
Others will bemoan him being a “teacher’s pet” that has played nine Test matches too many before his 25th birthday.
It certainly was a point of conjecture whether Mulder would be selected for this second Test against Bangladesh here at St George’s Park after a lacklustre performance last week in Durban.
He certainly looked like a young man with the world’s problems on his shoulders after being dismissed for a golden duck in the first innings at Kingsmead.
But instead of throwing him to the wolves captain Dean Elgar put his arm around his prodigy and backed him for another run out.
Mulder repaid his skipper with an all-round performance on Saturday that underlines the value that he potentially does add to the Proteas Test line-up.
There were 33 critical runs, which formed part of a 80-run partnership with South Africa’s surprisingly highest scorer Keshav Maharaj for the seventh wicket, that enabled the Proteas to stretch their first innings total to 453 before a three-wicket burst that turned this Test on its head.
Mulder will know that much more is expected of him with the willow in hand, but when he follows it up with a bowling spell like he did on Saturday his stocks certainly do rise.
Mulder’s lines and lengths were impeccable running in from the Park Drive End. He had the ball on a virtual string and caused mayhem among the Bangladeshi left-handers after the visitors had recovered from the early loss of last week’s centurion Mahmudul Hasan Joy for a duck in Duanne Olivier’s first over.
Veteran opener Tamim Iqbal and Najmul Hossain Shanto had seemingly weathered the Proteas storm with an 82-run partnership before Mulder wrecked havoc with a triple strike in nine spellbinding overs.
The simplicity of the dismissals was a sight to behold with Mulder removing Tamim (47), Najmul (33) and the Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque (6) in identical fashion. All three left-handers were lured on to the front foot due to the length of the delivery only for the ball to crash into their front pads.
Umpire Allahudien Paleker upheld two of the appeals, while the other required the intervention of the television referral for confirmation.
Bangladesh had slipped from 82/1 to 100/4 and any chance of getting close to South Africa’s highest total at home since the first Test against Sri Lanka in 2020 has seemingly evaporated.
The challenge became even steeper when Olivier returned in a bristling mood in his second spell. Having been off-colour in the first Test at Kingsmead, Oliver seemed to have greater rhythm at St George’s Park and was rewarded with a second scalp when he went straight through the defences of Litton Das with the floodlights already turned on.
Bangladesh’s late afternoon collapse was partially due to Maharaj and the rest of the South African tail keeping the tourists in the field much longer that they would have expected at the start of the day.
Filled with confidence from his seven-wicket haul last week on his home ground Maharaj played with the swagger of a Las Vegas billionaire.
He cut, drove and pulled enroute to a career-best 84 that included nine boundaries and three sixes. It was the third of those sixes that brought up Maharaj’s fourth Test half-century up in style off just 50 balls.
The entertainment was eventually brought to a close when Maharaj became Taijul Islam’s fifth wicket with the off-spinner eventually finishing with 6/135.
IOL Sport