Ken Borland

Coming after their impressive ODI series win over South Africa, the opening day of the Test series was a tough one for Bangladesh as they probably made the wrong decision at the toss by sending the Proteas in to bat and then bowled poorly in the morning session to compound the mistake.

Openers Dean Elgar (67) and Sarel Erwee (41) added 113 for the first wicket, before Bangladesh fought back in the afternoon to reduce the hosts to 180/4. But Temba Bavuma (53*) and Kyle Verreynne (27*) then made sure it was South Africa’s day at Kingsmead as they added an unbeaten 53 to take the Proteas to 233/4 at stumps.

Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo admitted a lack of confidence in batting first and an inexperienced attack was the cause of their woes. Pacemen Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed only have 25 Test caps between them.

“We’re still trying to improve our Test cricket and there is still a bit of uncertainty over our batting on pitches with pace and bounce, that was behind the decision to bowl first,” Domingo revealed on Thursday evening.

“We’re trying to address the confidence of the batsmen so they are able to front up when batting first on wickets that are tough. There was not too much in the decision and it would have been nice to actually start at 10am because the delay meant the clouds had burned off.

“A few of the batsmen are playing their first Test here and we’re trying to get them to have confidence in their ability, but there’s still a long way to go.

“We also have a very inexperienced attack and we bowled poorly in the first session. Obviously the guys were a bit nervous or over-eager, on a pitch they thought would assist them. But we were much better after lunch,” Domingo said.

The Bangladesh attack did clearly miss left-arm quick Shoriful Islam, one of the stars of the ODI series.

“Shoriful is injured, he has an ankle niggle which is why he missed selection, and is back is troubling him too,” Domingo revealed. “With only four bowlers, we could not risk one who was 50/50.

“The pitch has not done as much as we thought it would, but Khaled ran in hard, he bowled one ball at 150km/h and his attitude was fantastic. He showed good pace and control.

“We kept it nice and tight in the last session and the new ball is just four overs away. Obviously it will be fantastic if we can get one or two early wickets with it.

“If we can keep the Proteas to around 320 then we’re very much in the contest,” Domingo, a former South Africa coach, said.

South Africa acquitted themselves superbly as they thrashed England by an innings and 12 runs in the first Test at the Oval in London on Monday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/sa-team/news/120723/SA_acquit_themselves_superbly_at_Oval

England, the official world number one, were bowled out for 240 in their second innings on the fifth and final day, making South Africa resounding favourites to win the three-match series and take that top ranking away from the hosts.

South Africa’s officials were adamant that the team had enough preparation leading into the Test, despite many pundits suggesting otherwise, and, apart from a first-day performance that lacked intensity and focus, they were always on top of the England team.

England began the final day on 102 for four and fought valiantly to save the Test before Dale Steyn, building up a wonderful head of steam with the second new ball, claimed three for eight in four overs midway through the afternoon session to break their resistance.

Steyn had begun the day by sending Ravi Bopara packing for 22, the batsman flashing at a wide delivery outside off stump without much conviction and dragging the ball back on to his middle stump.

But Ian Bell and Matt Prior batted with admirable tenacity and application, while showing solid technique and no little skill as they took England through to lunch on 177 for five.

Bell had survived two chances, AB de Villiers clanging a simple catch off leg-spinner Imran Tahir when he was on 20 and the wicketkeeper then missed what would have been a spectacular run out when Bell had 28.

Steyn, getting big reverse-swing, and Tahir, obtaining turn and bounce out of the rough, combined well after lunch to keep the pressure on England.

Tahir, who served his team well in the second innings with figures of three for 63 in 32 overs, provided a crucial breakthrough by removing Prior 11 overs after the break.

England’s wicketkeeper/batsman tried to sweep, but the bounce Tahir was getting always makes that stroke a very risky one and the safe hands of Jacques Kallis snaffled the top-edge at slip as it flew past De Villiers.

Prior had stuck around for 86 balls, scoring 40, a good effort for England and Bell, about whom much has been written as a strokeplayer, showed plenty of resilience, character and skill in scoring 55 off 220 balls.

The key wicket of Bell came in the second over with the new ball as the batsman followed an away-swinger from Steyn, second slip Kallis taking the catch, which came very quickly as the ball basically came off the face of the bat.

The wickets of Stuart Broad, caught behind for a duck gloving a leg-side lifter, and Graeme Swann, driving straight to cover-point, came quickly thereafter for Steyn, giving him superb figures of five for 56 in 21 overs.

After some brief resistance from Tim Bresnan (20 not out), Tahir then ended the innings by trapping Jimmy Anderson lbw for four with a delivery that basically rolled after it pitched in the rough.

The delighted South Africans, with their first victory at the Oval at their 14th attempt, are now calling the tune in the three-Test series that will decide the number one ranked team in the world.