SA‚ Bangladesh reach last-gasp saloon

One more time with feeling‚ South Africa and Bangladesh will say to themselves as they take the field to play the second T20 in Potchefstroom on Sunday.

The South Africans have long since proved their superiority‚ which was undoubted in their home conditions‚ by winning both tests‚ all three one-day internationals and the first T20.

Even so‚ there’s hope of the tide turning‚ if only at the last gasp‚ in some sections of the press.

“They took their sweet time‚ but after more than a month of cricket Bangladesh finally fulfilled their captain’s stated target of looking like they were a team that had come to play and gave their best‚” the Daily Star‚ Bangladesh’s leading English-language newspaper‚ reported.

“That they still lost the first T20 [international] to South Africa on Thursday speaks to the difference in quality between the two sets of players‚ but in being on level terms with South Africa for around 20 of the 40 overs the visitors showed that they still have the will to fight.”

For South Africa‚ the reassurance that they are able play to their potential at will rather than at the behest of the challenge set by their opposition is what will be at stake in Potch.

That is no small thing.

It sets great teams apart from merely good ones‚ and it will stand the South Africans in good stead in a summer in which they will also face India and Australia.

The Bangladeshis are in a far darker place.

They arrived on a wave of confidence swept up by having won seven of their last 13 completed matches — across all formats‚ mostly at home but some away and against teams like Sri Lanka‚ New Zealand and Australia.

They will leave after Sunday’s game wondering how it all went so badly wrong. Here’s a clue: get over the conditions already.

Four times Bangladesh have won the toss on this tour‚ and four times they have chosen to field first. Or not to bat.

And that on probably the flattest pitches seen for international matches in South Africa since Hugh Tayfield was in his prime.

If they are going to become significantly more successful outside of the comfort zone of their home conditions they are going to have to stop undermining their own batsmen before they have even taken guard.

“There’s no end to learning‚” Soumya Sarkar said on Thursday after top-scoring for the visitors with 47.

“They made nearly 200 [195/4] runs but we also made 175 [175/9]. This will give us confidence that we can also score 200.”

Sunday is as good a day as any to make that happen.