Du Plessis sets up SA victory

Dhaka, July 5

Skipper Faf du Plessis scored an unbeaten half century to set up a crushing 52-run win for South Africa over Bangladesh in the first Twenty20 International in Dhaka.

Du Plessis helped the visitors recover from a shaky start with an unbeaten 79 off 61 balls, his sixth half-century in T20Is, which included eight fours. Off-spinner JP Duminy (2-11), medium pacer David Wiese (2-12) and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (2-28) then put in a combined effort to dismiss Bangladesh for 96 runs on a slow wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Shakib Al Hasan was the only batsman to offer some kind of resistance with 26 off 30 balls while debutante Litton Das made 22 off 33 balls. Bangladesh lost both their openers for 13 runs but seemed to have recovered when Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim (17) put 37 runs for the second wicket. The game decisively swung the Proteas’ way when Duminy dismissed Rahim and Sabbir Rahman (4) in his successive overs and left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso removed Nasir Hossain for one as Bangladesh collapsed from 2-50 to 5-57.

Earlier, opting to bat first, South Africa struggled to keep the scoreboard rolling. Bangladesh started with spinners from both ends and struck almost immediately with left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny dismissing AB de Villiers in the very first over for two. De Villiers opened the innings for only the second time in his T20 career and conceded four dots before he picked up Mashrafee Mortaza at cover in the last ball of the over.

Brief scores: SA: 148/4 (du Plessis 79*, Sunny 2-19) beat B’desh 96 (Duminy 2-11) by 52 runs. — AFP