WATCH: Kagiso Rabada’s pacy delivery flattens Mushfiqur Rahim’s middle stump

The first Test match between Bangladesh and South Africa is witnessing a finely poised game. At lunch, the home team trailed by 1 run, with Mehidy Hasan Miraz batting on 55. Jakera Ali was the other batter not out, on 30 off 71 balls with four hits to the fence. 

Former Bangladeshi skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was batting on 33 when he faced off against Kagiso Rabada. The ball was bowled at a rapid pace and it tailed into the batter. Rahim went for a drive and was beaten for pace and saw his stumps being flattened on the ground. This was South Africa’s 5th wicket of the innings to put the hosts in trouble. 

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The home team ended the second day at 101 for the loss of 3 wickets still trailing the visitors by 101 runs. Mahmudul Hasan Joy was batting on 38 with veteran star Mushfiqur Rahim batting on 31. South Africa had taken an overall lead of 202 thanks to a century by wicketkeeper and batter Kyle Verreynne who scored 114 runs. 

Kagiso Rabada strikes two early blows to dent Bangladesh

South African bowlers began well as Bangladeshi batters added just 5 runs from the 4 overs bowled. The game changed in the 32nd over when Kagiso Rabada removed Mahmudul Joy for 40 runs from 92 balls with three fours. In the same over Rahim was castled by Rabada to push the hosts into further trouble. 

Keshav Maharaj then got the wicket of Litton Das caught behind for 7 runs. At that stage, the score read 112/6 before Miraz and Ali combined to add 89 unbeaten runs for the 7th wicket. Miraz reached his fifty off 94 balls with the help of seven boundaries and one huge six to take the attack to the Proteas bowlers. 

Speaking at the end of the day, Hasan Mahmud said, "Getting out is not in our control but I would say, we can concentrate a bit more and focus on getting set at the wicket. It's frustrating but the batters feel that they can make a comeback in the next day.”

The young pace bowler also said, “Joy and Mushfiq bhai are batting well and they will try to bat as long as possible and build a good partnership, if we can post a total over 200 runs I think we can win.”