South Africa wrapped up the first Test against Bangladesh in the 10th over of play on the fourth day of the match at Buffalo Park on Monday.
The margin of victory was an innings and 107 runs. This time it was medium-pacer David Terbrugge who was responsible for the visitors losing their last five wickets within 50 minutes of start of play.
Bowling with plenty of fire and with his usual accuracy the red-headed Gauteng bowler dismissed the first four batsmen to fall on Monday, finishing with the fine figures of 5-46 off 15 overs, his best in Test match play.
Testament to his accuracy was the fact that two batsmen were out leg-before wicket and one was clean-bowled. Fittingly Border’s Makhaya Ntini on his home ground took the last wicket, having Monjural Islam caught at cover by substitute fielder Alfonso Thomas.
All out for 252, it was a much-improved performance from Bangladesh, who are coming to terms with the pace and bounce of South African pitches. ”Our batsmen are improving all the time,” said Bangaldesh captain, Khaled Mashud after the game. He was positive that on the batsmen-friendly wicket at Potchefstroom, his team would do much better than at East London.
Mark Boucher, the South African captain was happy with his team’s performance. ”The boys stuck to their task, all players gave 110%. ”You cannot ask for more than that.
The only blight on the team’s performance was the fact that four or five possible catches went astray.
”Nobody drops catches on purpose, and we’ll work on our catching.” the South African skipper said. Graeme Smith was made man of the match for his 200 he made on the opening day. The team for the second Test at Potchefstroom will be announced once convener of selectors, Omar Henry has consulted with Shaun Pollock who has an injury to his left knee.
Pollock was due to visit a specialist on Monday and he would confirm whether he was fit enough to play. – Sapa