New York | Pacers Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Taskin Ahmed excelled in favourable conditions to help Bangladesh restrict South Africa to a modest 113/6 in their T20 World Cup match here on Monday.
Tanzim (3/18) ran through the Proteas top order in company of Taskin (2/19) while Mustafizur (0/18) too played his part well as Bangladesh produced a collective show despite strong resistance from Heinrich Klaasen (46) and David Miller (29).
Klaasen and Miller looked to revive South Africa from a shaky start with a 79-run stand for the fifth wicket, but the pair could never really accelerate on a two-paced wicket on which the Bangladesh spinners also displayed control.
Tanzim struck thrice in his opening burst to leave South Africa reeling at 23 for four inside the first five overs.
After Quinton de Kock (18) showed aggressive intent by hitting the right-arm bowler for a six and a four in the initial exchanges, Tanzim made immediate amends to his line and length and hit Reeza Hendricks in front of the stumps for a golden duck.
In fact, it was his simple yet effective tactics of bowling at the wickets paid high dividends as Tanzim cleaned up South Africa captain Aiden Markram (4), who missed a straight one with his bat coming down a bit awkwardly.
Tristan Stubbs (0) had done a fine job of rebuilding the innings for South Africa in their last outing against the Netherlands, but the right-hander too had a soft dismissal to endure.
As if the ball stopped on Stubbs — like it had on a couple of Indian batters a day before at this venue — he played one meekly to Shakib Al Hasan at cover who put in a dive to collect the ball.
South Africa also had the luck favouring them when Miller, on 13, was given a reprieve by Litton Das behind the wickets on the first ball of Mahmudullah’s spell.
To their credit, both Klaasen and Miller assessed the conditions and the pitch perfectly to lead the rescue act for the Proteas.
Klaasen hit a couple of sixes upfront against Bangladesh spinners to push them back while Miller was content in rotating the strike. However, he was cleaned up by Taskin late in the innings after a 44-ball knock, studded with two fours and three sixes.
Klaasen and Miller did find run-scoring difficult on the Nassau County pitch since they were forced to curb their attacking instinct.
