It was one of those games in Group D of the ICC World T20. Two teams, one, South Africa, stronger than the other, Bangaldesh going at each other in a crucial game. A number of things going through the minds of the players on both sides, arguably none more so than the state of the pitch.
The New York pitch has now built up something of a reputation. A bad one from the standpoint of batters. And this it was no different. Winning the toss and batting first Quinton de Kock got them out of the blocks pretty quickly but wickets kept falling at the other end. Almost a replay of the scenes that took place in the game against the Netherlands. With Hendricks dismissed for a duck, and Makram out cheaply.
The game seemed almost formulaic at this point. A slow start. Early wickets. The batsman was forced to hunker down and try to rebuild the innings consuming a lot of deliveries in the process. But eventually, a result was attained.
South Africa: Good Enough on the Day
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After a slow and uncertain certain, which is a common occurrence in New York, the South African batsman settled down to bat out the full 20 overs. That seemed to have been the strategy once the wickets started tumbling and given the history of low scores on this surface, the idea of aiming for something huge went out of the window quickly.
With four wickets down 23, it was once again up to David Miller, the hero from the last and Heinrich Klaasen to start building the innings to get as close as possible to score of respectability. It was a rough slough for the most part. With Miller managing 29 whilst taking 38 deliveries. The South Africans eventually batted out their allotted overs for another under-par score of 113.
The Bangladesh Chase: Nothing to Write Home About
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As it was the case in the game between Pakistan and India, getting a subpar score is not the end of the world. With some tight bowling, solid fielding and a never-say-die attitude teams can defend such low scores. And this is exactly what the South Africans did.
Bangladesh’s chase started out in pretty much the same vein as the South Africans. An early wicket, no big overs and the middle order getting bogged down by some tight bowling Anrich Nortje was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets for 17 runs in his allotted 4 overs and he was well backed up by fellow pacer Kagiso Rabada.
The Bangladesh innings never got going. Despite chasing a low total, there is a temptation to blow the opposition away with big shots and bring the asking rate down. Or at least push for quick runs and get the odd boundary. Neither of these things happened. And by the end, Bangladesh ended up losing what could be called a nail-biting game. But in fairness the intent to drive home the result was never really there.
