Ken Borland

“You never really know how a pitch is going to play,” Kagiso Rabada said, “but we had an idea from the warm-up that it would favour the seamers and bowled accordingly.”

And brilliantly.

South Africa bundled Bangladesh out for just 84 in their T20 World Cup match in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, a total they then chased down with six wickets in hand and 39 balls to spare to significantly boost their nett run-rate.

Rabada led the way with an outstanding display that brought him career-best figures of 3/20. On a pitch that almost demanded Test-style bowling, he was bang on the mark with both his lengths and skills from the outset.

“There was a lot of grass on the pitch and a bit of zip, as well as being a bit two-paced. We learnt from the Australia game here and we also noticed a bit of swing in the warm-up,” Rabada said after the win.

“You never really know how a pitch is going to play, but we had an idea that it would favour the seamers and we bowled accordingly. In my three overs up front there was a bit of bounce, seam movement and swing.

“So conditions were in my favour and you just try to get the ball in the right places. Anrich Nortje [3.2-0-8-3] is also bowling pretty rapidly at the moment and every bowler that came on stuck to the game-plan and got us into an even stronger position,” Rabada said.

South Africa also know full well that their semi-finals qualification could come down to nett run-rate and they used the small target as an opportunity to boost that figure to more than one run per over better than rivals Australia: 0.742 to -0.627.

After a rocky start, they won in the 14^th over largely thanks to Temba Bavuma’s quickfire 31 not out off 28 balls. Rabada said criticism of the captain has been ill-informed.

“There’s nothing more to say about Temba, the results are there. You are always going to have critics and we make peace with that, we take the good with the bad.

“You can’t control what is said outside the game, but we probably put more pressure on ourselves than the public do.

“Obviously we chatted at halfway about nett run-rate and we wanted to try and finish the chase as early as possible. There was a clear instruction to finish before 15 overs, we did that and we are happy,” Rabada said.

A superb bowling performance by the Proteas saw them bowl Bangladesh out for just 84 and, although their batsmen had some troubles of their own on a spiteful pitch, they managed to cross the line with six wickets and 39 balls to spare in Abu Dhabi.

Bangladesh, having been sent in to bat, were thoroughly undermined by fiery fast bowling at its best by Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.

Rabada began the rout in the fourth over when he had Mohammad Naim (9) caught at a wide mid-on and then trapped Soumya Sarkar lbw first ball with a brilliant late inswinging yorker.

In Rabada’s next over, Mushfiqur Rahim (0) was superbly caught by a juggling Reeza Hendricks at slip, South Africa’s pace spearhead finishing with career-best figures of three for 20.

There was no respite for Bangladesh as Nortje continued his outstanding tournament, bouncing out Mahmudullah (3) and then returning to wrap up the innings with two wickets in two balls as he finished with three for eight in 3.2 overs.

In between, spinner Tabraiz Shamsi did his usual fine job in the middle overs with two for 21 in his four overs.

Opener Liton Das (24 off 36) and Mehedi Hasan (27 off 25) were the only Bangladesh batsmen to contribute much.

Paceman Taskin Ahmed (4-0-18-2) made it anything but easy for the South African top-order as he jagged a delivery back into Hendricks (4) to trap him lbw and then a fine ball that held its line had Aiden Markram (0) well-taken at slip by Naim.

Quinton de Kock looked promising for his 16 but then missed a straight one from spinner Mehedi, to leave the Proteas in trouble on 33 for three.

But captain Temba Bavuma was unflustered and batted through to the end with his 31 not out off 28 balls including some great strokeplay that brought him three fours and a six.

Rassie van der Dussen (22) also helped weather the early storm before Shoriful Islam took a fine outfield catch off spinner Nasum Ahmed.

Perhaps the most important thing to come out of the match was the boost to the Proteas nett run-rate as they won in the 14th over, taking their nett run-rate to +0.74, stretching their lead over Australia’s -0.63.

Dwaine Pretorius has announced himself as a new death-bowling star for the Proteas and he knows that his role will once again be vital against Bangladesh in their crucial T20 World Cup match in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

In a low-scoring tournament, a huge premium is being placed on the last few overs when teams go for broke and the size of the boost they give themselves is often the difference between winning and losing.

So far in the three matches South Africa have played, Pretorius has taken six wickets for 60 runs in 8.4 overs, the majority of those bowled at the death. The all-rounder has executed a clever plan of bowling full and wide of off-stump to great effect.

“So far in this competition it looks like teams are taking care in the powerplay because if you lose two wickets up front you’re in trouble,” Pretorius said on Monday.

“I think Bangladesh will also try to take it deep like Sri Lanka did and then have a go at the death. It’s up to us to upset that and ensure it doesn’t go according to plan for them.

“There are dangers at the death in being too predictable, so I try and vary my pace and length, although the line stays the same. It’s not an ego-battle at the death, you just want to be as effective as possible.

“I want to bowl to a batsman’s Plan B or C rather than their Plan A. It doesn’t look too fancy but I’m happy to do the ugly job and I’ve worked on a lot of different variations of slower balls,” Pretorius said.

The 32-year-old said the great fighting spirit the Proteas have shown thus far is down to their becoming like a family, and they have promised to keep fighting to the end.

“It’s actually astonished me how this team has stuck together no matter what controversies at CSA or wherever. We are really forming a family, and that’s one of the positives of Covid bubbles – you are forced to spend a lot of time together.

“We will not stop fighting until the last ball and you have seen that in our three games so far. It’s a promise we make to each other every day. There’s an awesome spirit in the camp and a win like the one over Sri Lanka just does even more for that.

“But we are keeping our heads down, we understand that there are two very important games left. We must win tomorrow or the England game won’t matter.

“It’s knockout cricket now and you can see the intensity is there in the squad. We will leave everything on the field against Bangladesh, play at the highest intensity,” Pretorius promised.

“We did not bat according to plan but we threw everything into it in the field,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said after South Africa began their T20 World Cup campaign in disappointing fashion with a five-wicket loss to Australia in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The comment about the batting is an understatement after the Proteas could only muster together 118 for nine in their 20 overs. As bad as their batting was, they certainly gave it their all with the ball and in the field as they made Australia sweat, the target only being chased down with two balls to spare.

Going into the last four overs, it even looked possible for South Africa to snatch victory at the death as Australia, having just lost two wickets in four balls, had two new batsmen at the crease, needing 36 runs off 24 balls to win.

But those batsmen were Marcus Stoinis (24* off 15) and Matthew Wade (15* off 10) and they fought hard to deny the Proteas with their unbroken stand of 40 off 29 balls.

“It was quite tough in the second half of the game knowing we only posted 118,” Bavuma said. “So I just asked the bowlers to stick with the plan and execute as well as they can, and for the fielders to throw everything into it.

“We wanted to try and build some pressure and I felt we did that. We spoke about being resilient and it was a great effort for the majority of the Australia innings.

“We did not bat according to plan and there’s a lot us batsmen need to improve. The bowlers did quite well, although at the end it was a bit frantic and maybe that’s something we can talk about.

“The fielding was good, barring one or two incidents. But we will obviously be looking to improve by a couple of percentage points in all departments,” Bavuma said.

If there has been one area of the game where South Africa have disappointed in recent times, it would be the batting, and they are relying on better starts from Quinton de Kock and Bavuma so the middle-order are able to come in and dominate.

The Proteas are now in a group with both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who although they had to qualify, are now in groove and playing in conditions that suit them. South Africa play the West Indies next in Dubai on Tuesday and they are going to need their batsmen to stand up quickly, because another defeat would probably mean the end of their challenge.

“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are two subcontinent teams playing in their own conditions, so that makes the group a lot tougher. We know now that every game we are going to have to bring our best cricket,” Bavuma admitted.