'Bowling was disappointing'

It was a match of two halves for Bangladesh yesterday. It started positively enough, with their best batting performance on tour so far, powered by an excellent fifth ODI century from Mushfiqur Rahim that took them to 278 for seven, the highest total by a Bangladesh team in South Africa. What followed was a completely toothless bowling display that left Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza flummoxed and a little embarrassed by South Africa's mockery of a 279-run target, which they overhauled with 10 wickets and 43 balls to spare.

Bangladesh's inefficacy in bowling is illustrated in a simple stat: in their last two ODIs, they have taken a grand total of one wicket over 83 overs -- that of Shikhar Dhawan, dismissed by Mashrafe 57.2 overs ago in the Champions Trophy semifinal on June 15.

"It was a 280-plus wicket but we could have defended it had we taken early wickets and created pressure from both sides. This was beyond our expectation, how we couldn't take a wicket," said Mashrafe after the match ended at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley yesterday. "I am sure all the bowlers will think about what happened and I'm sure this was not part of how they wanted to bowl. We have to come back from this."

But a comeback is going to be hard, especially considering what he said next. "Mustafizur [Rahman] is probably out of the series from the time he got hurt yesterday."

Mustafizur, arguably Bangladesh's best ODI bowler, twisted his ankle during warm-up on the eve of the first ODI and missed the match yesterday. It was learnt that his ankle had swollen up appreciably and that there will be a scan when the team reach Cape Town today.

Already hamstrung by the absence of their pace spearhead, Bangladesh were further hampered by the absence of their batting lynchpin Tamim Iqbal, who is yet to fully recover from the thigh muscle tear he had sustained earlier on tour, and which forced the country's highest run-scorer to miss the second Test.

"We were aware of their injuries from yesterday. We waited for Tamim till the last moment but the physio didn't want to take a risk," said Mashrafe. "Our body language didn't reflect anything untoward when we started the day. We batted almost as planned; Shakib [Al Hasan] and Mushfiqur took responsibility by performing their roles properly."

But it was the bowling that had really let them down as they failed to take a wicket for 42.5 overs as Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock struck serene tons and recorded only the second instance in ODI history that a team won by 10 wickets when chasing more than 250.

After innings of 90, 147 and 172 to close out the Test series, 278 seems a great result. But the 10-wicket reversal has more than cancelled out any positives that could have emerged.

"We are doing everything possible. The result is not coming in our favour to keep mentality positive," said Mashrafe. "I think they would have chased the total regardless but we should have taken at least five or six wickets in the process. It may have put them under some pressure but our bowling was just disappointing. It will be hard for us to do well if we keep bowling this way."

A question was raised about whether there was a rift in the team; apparently someone had seen Tamim throw his bat during practice the day before. Mashrafe however did not have time for such speculation.