South Africa amended themselves in the second ODI of the ongoing series against Bangladesh at Wanderers on Sunday. After failing to control the Bangladesh batting order in the first ODI, the Proteas hit back with some fearsome pace and bounce, hitting the 140k mark consistently. The extra bounce on the deck rewarded them with three quick wickets of the stars from the last game, captain Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das within the first eight overs.
Tamim and Shakib got out in similar fashion presenting leading edges to Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada respectively, while Liton Das gloved a sharp bouncer to Quinton de Kock, who made no mistake in grabbing a dolly. At the time when all this was happening, commentators pointed out the extra bounce in the Wanderers track despite it looking drier than usual. The running opinion was that the batsmen have to play in the 'V' to keep bowlers at bay on the track.
Liton found touch early on staying deep in his crease, letting the ball come to him, but the starkly different approach of Shakib and Tamim saw them getting out. Both players tried to plant their front foot and intercept the ball early, losing control completely against the quality pace attack.
Down at 23/3, SA dealt two more blows to the Bangladesh batting order, dismissing Mushfiqur Rahim (11 off 31) and then Yasir Ali (2 off 14). Rahim was caught off a low delivery from Wayne Parnell, that seemed to skid on and keep very low as it reached the batter. Despite the left hander bowling from over the wicket, Rahim chose not to review and walked off.
Kagiso Rabada seemed to breathe fire in the deck, extracting bounce at will making pick up shots very difficult for the batsmen. He found the wicket of Yasir Ali with the same, banging the ball in short and making the batsman hurry.
Bangladesh found slight reprieve after returning Wayne Parnell hopped off injured. Playing with just five specialist bowlers, South Africa were forced to bowl Temba Bavuma, who at the time of writing had given 8 runs from his first three overs.
Bangladesh were trying to rebuild with Mahmudullah Riyad and Afif Hossain in the middle. The duo had played 53 balls together at the time of writing and had scored 34 runs between them. South Africa were operating with Bavuma and Tabraiz Shamsi, with Keshav Maharaj yet to have a bowl in the game.
At the time of writing, Bangladesh were 69/5 after 22 overs.