South Africa went some way towards restoring their self-belief by scorching to a 10 wicket victory over Bangladesh in a World Cup Pool B match at Goodyear Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The South Africans have already lost to the West Indies and New Zealand in the preliminary round with a crucial match against Sri Lanka still to come.
Their progress through to the Super Six stage of the tournament may well depend on a run-rate countout at the end of the pool phase and this was clearly uppermost in the minds of the South African openers Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten who rocketed to a victory target of 109 in just 12 overs.
For once Kirsten was the more aggressive of the pair, taking just 30 balls to post his 45th one-day fifth and his third in four matches at this World Cup. He finished unbeaten on 52, hitting nine fours and a six with Gibbs, who scored the winning single, ending with 49 not out.
Gibbs has now scored 303 runs in the tournament at an average of 151,50 while Kirsten has scored 178 for once out.
The man of the match award, however, went to fast bowler Makhaya Ntini who took a wicket in his opening spell and three more when he returned to the attack to lop off the Bangladesh tail to return figures of four for 24.
As convincing as the victory was, though, it was no more than should have been expected of the South Africans. Despite their Test status, Bangladesh lost their first match in the tournament to Canada and at best they can be regarded as no better than moderate opposition.
Once again the Bangladesh top order, which gave up a hat-trick off the first three balls of the game against Sri Lanka, struggled. Ntini and Shaun Pollock had Bangladesh three for 21 in their opening burst and then Monde Zondeki and Andrew Hall, both playing their first match of the tournament along with Robin Peterson, reduced the batting side to 56 for six before captain Khaled Mashud and Khaled Mahmud put together the only parthership of substance in the innings.
Together they added 35 for the seventh wicket with Mashud top-scoring with 29 and Mahmud going through to be last man out for 23. Once Mushud had gone, however, the Bangladesh tail had no answer to Ntini and with Boeta Dippenaar snaffling three catches in an unfamiliar slip/gully position, the innings closed on 108 after 35.1 overs.
Kirsten and Gibbs rollicked along to 75 off nine overs before the lunch break and took only a further three overs after the interval to wrap up the match.
Even in victory, however, the South Africans managed to raise eyebrows with their selection for this game. Veteran fast bowler Allan Donald, who has bowled poorly in this World Cup, was again left out against lesser opposition.
There is a growing chorus of opinion, which now includes South African bowling coach Corrie van Zyl, which holds that Donald needs overs out in the middle if he is to regain his rhythm and form. He has now been denied the opportunity to bowl against Kenya and Bangladesh and if South Africa do make it through to the Super Six stage, the selectors’ inexplicable treatment of their senior fast bowler may yet come back to haunt them.