A familiar tale

Wisden CricInfo staff

October 9, 2002

Close South Africa 152 for 3 (25.4 overs: van Jaarsveld 42) beat Bangladesh 151 (43.1 overs: Bashar 51, Pollock 4-24) by seven wickets
Scorecard

South Africa cruised to a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh in the third and final one-day international at Kimberley, completing a whitewash that was inevitable from the moment the miserably one-sided series was announced.

The match followed a similar pattern to Sunday's game, although this time Bangladesh did manage to take wickets and South Africa took more than half their overs - just - to reach their target. It would have finished far earlier were it not for some unpredictable bounce which served to give the Bangaldesh bowlers a previously unseen edge and the failure of South Africa's run machine, Herschelle Gibbs.

Gibbs played round a straight one from Tapash Baisya for 15 - possibly even he had tired of milking runs off such poor bowlers - to give Bangaldesh their first wicket since the opening innings of the series. Martin van Jaarsveld overcame a nervous start in his first international innings to unveil some superb shots off the back foot, but perished when overconfidence led to a loose flick to midwicket for 42. Jonty Rhodes, all scampering and improvisation on his return to the side, made 30 at the end. Bangladesh hardly helped their cause by conceding ten wides and 12 no-balls.

Only a vibrant 51 from Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh's best batsman, threatened to make the match a contest but a familiar collapse - four wickets for one run this time - followed to effectively decide the game. Bashar, playing in his first match of the series, batted aggressively from the start, and added 68 for the third wicket with Sanwar Hossain in good time. But from 83 for 2 in the 20th over, and then 150 for 6 in the 40th, Bangladesh subsided wretchedly.

It took Shaun Pollock - who did not take the new ball for only the third time in 170 ODIs - to restore order, breaking the third-wicket stand when Sanwar (23) walked too far across his stumps and was plumb lbw (83 for 3).

Two balls later Tushar Imran fell lbw to Pollock in comical fashion. He went a long way back to a ball nowhere near as short as he expected, and was left hopping around like a man being chased by a wasp as the ball jagged back towards him. Tushar was hit in line, but may have got an inside edge. There was also a doubt over height; that aside, it was plumb.

Bashar went to 50 off 61 balls, but fell when he looked to turn Ntini to leg and spooned a leading-edge to Jonty Rhodes in the covers (93 for 5). Alok Kapali fell to a grubber from left-arm spinner Robin Peterson - his first international wicket - before the two Khaleds, Mahmud and the captain Mashud, took Bangladesh to 150 for 6.

Then the tail fell away: Mahmud advanced at Peterson and was bowled essaying a huge heave, Mashud was caught and bowled by Pollock in the next over, and the cake was iced when van Jaarsveld - who has only ever taken six first-class wickets - bowled Anwar Hossain with his first ball in international cricket.

Pollock ended up with 4 for 24, giving him 100 wickets in 74 ODIs as South African captain. Maybe he should come on first change more often.

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