| Ground: | Springbok Park, Bloemfontein |
| Scorecard: | South Africa v Bangladesh |
| Player: | Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, JH Kallis, M Ntini |
| Event: | Bangladesh in South Africa 2008/09 |
DateLine: 22nd November 2008
South Africa’s bid to wrap up the first test match against Bangladesh at Bloemfontein took a severe blow as rains came down in torrents and stopped the day’s play, four deliveries short of 20 overs in the day.
Resuming at the their overnight score of 20/1 – they had lost debutant Imrul Kayes overnight – the two Bangladeshi batsmen in Junaid Siddique and Tamim Iqbal, batted with relative ease for about forty five minutes. And just when the duo looked to have settled down, a wide delivery from Makhaya Ntini was slashed by Iqbal only to find him take an edge to the wicket-keeper. Iqbal’s long vigil was ended at the score of 45, with his personal score at 20.
Siddique was then joined by skipper Mohammad Ashraful, and the partnership again did not look like separating. Yet, a similar type of a delivery by Jacques Kallis induced an exact replica of a shot by Siddique to have him walking back to the pavilion. He scored 27 off 68 deliveries and hit three boundaries.
At this stage the light began to get darker and within three deliveries of his dismissal, the umpires had offered it to the batsman. Rains came down after that, and the day’s play was abandoned with Bangladesh at 67/3 and trailing the South Africa by 221 runs yet.
South Africa will look to wrap up the innings as soon as they can before weather intervenes more substantially and plays a more vital role in the match.
