Spinners ruled the roost in South Africa’s rarest of rare home Test victories, where their two lead tweakers, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, shared a whopping 14 wickets and pushed their side to a whopping 220-run victory in Durban.
Proteas ran through Bangladesh in the final innings of the first Test on April 4, dismissing them for just 53 inside 19 overs, with Maharaj and Harmer taking all ten wickets. In a country where pace dictates play, the spinners helped the vulnerable SA team go 1-0 up in the series.
Maharaj took seven for 32 in the fourth-innings, while Harmer finished with figures of three for 21, adding to his four-wicket haul taken on comeback in the first-innings. Missing their entire front line of seamers, South Africa entrusted their spinners to do the duty, and they delivered the goods.
“How awesome was it to see two spin bowlers bowling in tandem and have it on a string and absolutely dominate the opposition,”
ESPNcricinfo quoted Dean Elgar after he became the first South African skipper since 1970 to walk into a home Test with two specialist spinners.
“It was great to see both of them competing at such a high level. Most batting line-ups would have had a tough ask against them. The pure skill level and intensity they brought along with their consistency was amazing to witness,”
he added.
Maharaj once again reinforced his status as South Africa’s No.1 Test spinner after seeing pacers do the bulk of the bowling duties in the earlier part of the home summer against India and on the tour of New Zealand that followed.
But what would’ve pleased the Proteas think-tank even more is the success that Harmer enjoyed on his Test comeback after five years. Making his return to the national set-up after the end of a Kolpak deal in the UK, Harmer looked determined to stamp his authority on the Test match and ended with match figures of seven for 124.
Resuming their innings at 11 for three, Bangladesh could add just another 40 runs to their score at the loss of the last seven wickets. 53 all out in Durban is Bangladesh’s second-lowest completed innings total in Test match history after 42 in the Antigua Test of the 2018 trip to the Caribbean. What would really hurt the visitors is that it is spin that led to their downfall. In a sorry-looking scorecard, only two of their batters Najmul Hossain Shanto (26) and Taskin Ahmed (14) entered double digits.
Earlier in the Test match, Bangladesh got all out for 298 to concede a vital first-innings lead of 69 runs to the South Africans. Mahmudul Hasan Joy was their lone warrior with the bat, scoring the maiden Test hundred by a Bangladeshi on South African soil through his defiant 137 off 326 deliveries in trying circumstances. The next best score for the innings was 41 from wicketkeeper-batter Liton Das.
South Africa had their own stutters with bat in hand, getting bundled out for an insignificant third-innings total of 204 with only Elgar (64), Keegan Petersen (36) and Ryan Rickelton (39*) making notable contributions. But their first-innings batting effort and a total of 367 helped keep their ascendancy above the tourists. Middle-order batter Temba Bavuma (93) and Elgar (67) were their stand-out performers.
On a dryish surface, Bangladesh missed their premier spin allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, in whose presence they would’ve had two good enough spinners on the field without disturbing their balance. The other half of that potential spin duo, Mehidy Hasan, took three wickets apiece in the two innings.
In the end, some high-class spin bowling from Maharaj, Harmer and their own longstanding issues with the bat came back to haunt the Bangladeshis, who will be eyeing a stronger performance in the next Test in Port Elizabeth.
Brief scores
South Africa 367/10 (Bavuma 93, Elgar 67; Ahmed 4/92) & 204/10 (Elgar 64, Rickelton 39*) beat Bangladesh 298/10 (Joy 137, Das 41; Harmer 4/102) & 53/10 (Shanto 26; Maharaj 7/32, Harmer 3/21) by 220 runs
