Rabada's ten-for wraps up crushing win

Lunch Bangladesh 147 and 92 for 4 (Mahmudullah 14*, Rabada 2-18) need another 334 runs to beat South Africa 573 for 4 dec
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South Africa used the short ball to tremendous effect, leaving Bangladesh four down in their follow-on and staring in the face of another heavy defeat in the second Test in Bloemfontein. South Africa’s pacers backed up their aggressive field placements by carving up the core of Bangladesh’s batting, Mushfiqur Rahim, their captain, the last man dismissed, at the stroke of lunch. At the break, Bangladesh were 92 for 4, with Mahmudullah unbeaten on 14.

So nasty were South Africa with the short stuff that three of Bangladesh’s batsmen were hit on the helmet. And it was Duanne Olivier, who sent down a marathon 10-over spell, who was responsible on two of those occasions. Mushfiqur was at the receiving end of the worst of the blows, when he took his eyes off one that climbed on to him nastily, leaving him with little time to react. It forced a lengthy break in play with Mushfiqur requiring medical attention before he could get back on his feet and resume his resistance. He was subsequently taken to the hospital during the lunch interval.

Before Olivier, Kagiso Rabada struck Mominul Haque flush on the helmet, before the ball deflected over the keeper. Just two overs prior to that, Rabada had found the outside edge of Soumya Sarkar for his 50th Test wicket. Sarkar dangled his bat outside the off-stump and the resulting outside edge was snaffled smartly by Faf du Plessis, who dived across first slip from second slip.

Rabada continued dishing out the short ball to Mominul, and two balls after hitting him on the helmet, got him to hole out to deep square leg off another short ball. Imrul Kayes and Mushfiqur then got together for a brief third-wicket stand of 34 before Imrul was strangled down the leg side as he attempted to tuck a hip-high short ball from Olivier and offered a catch to Quinton de Kock. He had made 32 off 53 balls that included five fours and a flat six off Keshav Maharaj.

It was then the turn of Mahmudullah to cop a blow on his head, but he did well to steady himself against the onslaught and head into the break unbeaten. But Bangladesh would go on to suffer another blow in the last ball of the session. Mushfiqur, having seen off 44 balls for his 26, paid for an error in judgement when he offered his pad to a length ball that nipped in slightly to ping him in front of off. Mushfiqur opted to review, perhaps motivated by the impact, but with the replays showing that the impact was inside and the ball would have clipped off-stump, the appeal was withheld.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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