Your essential guide to the second ODI between the Proteas and Bangladesh, which gets underway on Wednesday at Boland Park.
Scenesetter
The Proteas come off a dominant 10-wicket win against Bangladesh and will be aiming to clinch the three-match series early. Not only will this pump them to No 1 in the world, it will hand Ottis Gibson the perfect start to his coaching tenure. Gibson has the gruelling task of preparing South Africa to win that coveted World Cup Trophy and the building for 2019 begins. This Bangladesh series is the stepping stone for the new gaffer to get a feel for his players. His experience as England bowling coach highlights his skill of bringing out the best out of a bowling attack, and in a way the injuries to senior players, namely Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Chris Morris and Vernon Philander, has given Gibson the disguised blessing to work with young talents such Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo and Duanne Olivier.
He hasn’t had too much to do in the batting department, as the Proteas boast one of the deadliest top orders in the world, with three out of the top 10 run-getters for 2017 – Quinton de Kock (4), Faf du Plessis (5) and Hashim Amla (8). De Kock and Amla showed why they are regarded as one of the most lethal opening pairs, smashing records in the first ODI with their 282-run stand, which included them equalling the third-highest opening partnership in ODI history, as well as the highest partnership for South Africa.
Keep an eye on…
Having been out of international cricket since the T20Is against England in June, De Villiers will be hungry to prove himself after handing the captaincy to Du Plessis in August. He had to watch De Kock and Amla’s dominance from the pavilion and will be keen to prove to the Proteas fans that his blood is still green. Naturally, Du Plessis and Miller too hold a threat and will have to step up if Amla and De Kock fail to repeat their first ODI performance. Kagiso Rabada is in red-hot form and after taking 4-43 in the first ODI will be aiming to up that with a second-career five-for in the second match.
Bangladesh will be hoping that their star batsman, Tamim Iqbal, will return after an injury in the second Test kept him out of the first ODI. With an average of 69.22 for the year, the opener will be crucial to Bangladesh producing a dominant start. Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan will also be vital on the day, with Mushfiqur coming off a ton in the first ODI and Shakib becoming the fastest player to the double of 5 000 ODI runs and 200 wickets. With his top wicket-taker for 2017, Mustafizur Rahman, out injured, the Tigers’ captain Mashrafe Mortaza needs to step up and lead his bowling attack. He has a difficult task ahead after his side were picked apart in the first ODI.
Form (most recent match last)
South Africa: WWLLW
Bangladesh: WLWLL
Teams:
No tinkering to the Proteas side after their 10-wicket win.
South Africa (probable) : 1 Quinton de Kock 2 Hashim Amla 3 Faf du Plessis 4 AB de Villiers 5 JP Duminy 6 David Miller 7 Dwaine Pretorius 8 Andile Phehlukwayo 9 Kagiso Rabada 10 Duanne Olivier 11 Imran Tahir
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal/Imrul Kayes 2 Liton Das 3 Shakib Al Hasan 4 Mushfiqur Rahim 5 Mahmudullah 6 Sabbir Rahman 7 Nasir Hossain 8 Mohammad Saifuddin 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (c) 10 Taskin Ahmed 11 Rubel Hossain
Stats:
– Sabbir Rahman is 8 runs away from 1 000 runs in ODIs
– India has the highest total on the ground: 351-3 vs Kenya
– Canada has the lowest, 36 all out vs Sri Lanka in 2003
– The largest victory in terms of runs was when the Proteas, batting first, put 301 on the board and bowled Sri Lanka out for 43, completing a 258-run victory.
Quotes:
Faf du Plessis on the first ODI: ‘I am very happy with the way it went. We wanted a dominating performance, and that’s what we delivered. I felt a bit sorry for the Bangladesh bowlers, but we set out to be ruthless. The guys are hungry to put in massive performances, and that’s exactly what we want.’
De Kock after 168*: ‘I didn’t get a chance to bat in the Test series so I had a chance to do some technical work out in the nets with Neil McKenzie, our coach. It was nice to get some batting.’
Mashrafe on second ODI: ‘We have a chance to make a comeback in the next two games. It is only natural to have a lot of talk around us but the players have to fight. We will do everything possible. The result is not coming in our favour which makes it hard to keep the positive mentality.’
Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
