Will curse or stats be decider?

Proteas remember shock losses, great wins

SOUTH Africa have won six of the eight matches they have played at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka – but their two losses there stick out like a broken bottle on a beach.

That was where they crashed out of the 2011 World Cup in their quarterfinal against New Zealand. Last year, India ended their bid to win the World T20 at the semifinal stage at the ground. Both setbacks have festered in the SA cricket consciousness.

New Zealand had no business beating one of the most talented, skilled and experienced combinations SA have yet put on the field.

The crux was the New Zealanders played as a team while SA were less than the sum of their parts.

Last year, India swept SA aside as if they were playing a game against their little brothers with a jug of lemonade – not a place in the WT20 final – the winners’ prize.

SA will be satisfied with the two consummate victories they have achieved at the ground since Sunday to win the T20 series.

But it will need more of the same in the first one-day international between the teams at the Shere Bangla today – and the second on Sunday – to help SA take the edge off their dark Dhaka memories.

That said, the Bangladeshis are hopeful they can bounce back, not least because they took ODI series off Pakistan and India in April and June.

“Their ODI record is a lot better than their T20 record, so we will be giving Bangladesh all the respect they deserve, certainly over their recent performance,” Hashim Amla said in Dhaka yesterday.

Bangladesh’s records in those formats are similar: they have won 30.39% of their ODIs and 27.27% of their T20s. But no equation is necessary to arrive at the fact that their confidence is flying high.

A lot of it has been sparked by a flareup of fast bowling in a team who have tended to rely on spin. That was the case against Pakistan, when slow poison claimed 10 of the 23 wickets taken by Bangladesh. But, against India, their pacemen took 21 of the 24 sticks.

Thirteen of them fell to left-armer Mustafizur Rahman, who looms as the stiffest challenge SA’s batsmen will face.

Also, the SA batting lineup is without AB de Villiers, who has been banned for a match and has returned home to be with his wife, Danielle, for the birth of their first child.

“Who wouldn’t miss AB in a team?” stand-in skipper Amla asked. “He is probably one of the best fielders in the world, and he is definitely the best batsman in the world.

“We will miss him but it’s a good chance for someone else.”

That is likely to be Farhaan Behardien.

SA’s attack has been bolstered by the return of Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren and Morne Morkel, who were not in the T20 squad. Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris, who were in the T20 mix, have stayed on.

Any which way SA pick their side, it will be stronger than their opponents.