South Africa still have the second new ball at their disposal and will hope to finish Bangladesh’s innings quickly and aim to bat once to seal a series whose score line remains 0-0, thanks largely to the rain. We have two more Tests this year.
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“If this Test was in South Africa, it would have been called off yesterday itself”, said Amla. Bangladesh will want to get back on the field, get a score under their belt and with so much rain coming, the pitch might not quite behave unexpectedly and will wish to catch South Africa off guard.
Dale Steyn was named the man of the series for taking six wickets in the two Tests which was mostly dampened by rain. “We had communicated to them the rain factor”. “This is one of the most freaky Test series I have been involved in”, he said.
Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim said the series was “an opportunity lost” but believed the result could have been in the hosts’ favour with better weather. The cost of the shared spoils is five points on the Test rankings, which does not rob them of their No. 1 spot but will close the gap between them and the chasing pack, irrespective of the final outcome of the Ashes. It would have taken around 4-5 hours to be fine but unfortunately, this is the last day play and there’s no point asking the players to dive around on a muddy outfield.
Fortunately, the weather did not have the final say in the One-Day worldwide series, where Bangladesh defeated both India and South Africa by 2-1 margins to enhance their growing reputation in the shorter formats.
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Since Bangladesh finished the opening day on 246 for eight, heavy rain prevented any chance of play over the next three days at Mirpur’s Shere Bangla National Stadium.
