Have tough fight on their hands

reached 300 against them.

The 78-run lead Bangladesh took into the second innings marked the first time they have cracked a first-innings nod over SA and was their biggest lead in any Test batting second.

It took SA 49.1 overs and cost them 147 runs to earn the six remaining wickets they needed to get back to the batting crease. Eighty-two of those runs flew of the bats of Shakib and Liton in the most watchable 29.1 overs of a dour match.

On Tuesday SA – besides Temba Bavuma – fritted away the advantage of batting first by neither using their feet nor rotating the strike well enough to prevent the bowlers from gaining a stranglehold.

Left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib’s experience aside, Bangladesh’s attack is weak. They are not fast. They do not turn the ball sharply. They are not swing merchants. But they are able to hit the spot consistently.

Let them do so and, as SA discovered in their first innings of 248, they will sap the life out of most batting line-ups.

Yesterday, Shakib and Liton provided SA with the antidote to that boring but effective approach by taking on the bowling with everything at their disposal – aggression, creativity, footwork, and the belief that they could hit hard whatever came at them.

But the Bangladeshis’ attempts to hammer Harmer with relish backfired. Not only did the off-spinner keep the runs he conceded in the 11 overs he bowled during the partnership down to 26, he broke the stand when Shakib hoicked a catch to midwicket to go for 47.

Then, having been blitzed for three fours and a six by Mohammad Shahid, Harmer had Liton removed for a maiden 50 by Quinton de Kock, who caught the looping ball a moment before he crashed into the stumps.

SA wrapped up the innings in a slide of four wickets for 15 runs. Harmer’s reward was a return of 3/105. Dale Steyn finished with 3/78. SA reached stumps able to look back on their best day’s work in the match.