DHAKA: Bangladesh will face South Africa in the second Twenty20 International at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium here on Tuesday.

South Africa beat Bangladesh by 52 runs in the first T20 at the same venue on Sunday. So this game will decide the fate of the series.

After dominating visiting teams in limited-overs cricket at home of late, Bangladesh faced a rare back-to-back defeats.

Earlier, they were defeated by India in the third and final One-day International and on Sunday South Africa handed them their second loss in the last one month in limited-overs cricket. However, Bangladesh still have one more T20I to jump back and level the series on Tuesday.

Despite being provided with a good start by their bowlers in the first T20 on Sunday, Bangladesh were unable to take advantage of the situation. Mashrafe Mortaza decided to play four spinners and rightly so. Arafat Sunny provided Bangladesh a major break, when he dismissed dangerous A.B. de Villiers in the first over.

It was Faf du Plessis and two short but valuable partnerships with J.P. Duminy and Rilee Rossouw helped South Africa get back in the match.

Bangladesh batsmen failed to capitalise on the low target set by South Africa, as Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar were dismissed very quickly. Just when Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan looked to have rejuvenated Bangladesh’s innings, the Proteas bowlers struck.

South Africa’s tight bowling and disciplined all-round performance finally overtook Bangladesh’s dominance at home.

For Bangladesh, Tamim and Soumya’s failure at the top will be a worry. Especially, Soumya callous attitude of playing risky shot should be handled. Once Rahim and Shakib were removed, there were no one to play a responsible innings.

However, bowling looked much more disciplined than their batting. Although Bangladesh would like to drop Sohag Gazi, who on his return to international cricket after a year, looked ineffective. Mustafizur Rahman was also not able to replicate his performance against India into the game against South Africa.

For South Africa, they need to decide whether they want stick with the option of A.B. de Villiers opening the innings with Quinton de Kock. Rilee Rossouw has been brilliant and may be pushing up him the order or making him open with Quinton de Kock, may help South Africa.

South Africa’s bowling has been disciplined. Duminy, as usual, gave South Africa with the necessary breakthroughs.

Teams (from):

BANGLADESH: Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (wicket-keeper), Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Arafat Sunny, Jubair Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Rony Talukdar, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Sohag Gazi, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal.

SOUTH AFRICA: Faf du Plessis (captain), Quinton de Kock (wicket-keeper), Kyle Abbott, A.B. de Villiers, J.P. Duminy, Beuran Hendricks, Eddie Leie, David Miller, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese.—Agencies

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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