Sports reporter //

A few more balls for the rest of the day. If you can handle them, you can spend the night safely. But in the fall, Mahmudul Hasan can say what exactly caused such a hasty thought.

Dan Peet came to bowl the 28th over of Bangladesh’s second innings. From his very first ball, he left the crease and went for a big shot. The bat-ball did not connect, he fell upside down. Bangladesh could have been in greater danger if Mahmudul failed to keep the bat at the crease before South African wicketkeeper Kyle Vereina dropped two balls.

However, before this, the quick return of Sadman Islam and Mumimul Haque or Nazmul Hossain not being able to play another big innings is a sign of danger. This is the relief, the two umpires of the field, Nitin Menon and Joel Wilson, ended the day’s play due to lack of light.

At the end of the second day, Bangladesh scored 101 runs for 3 wickets. 101 runs behind South Africa. Opener Mahmudul 38 and Mushfiqur Rahim will start the third day tomorrow with 31 runs. Bangladesh fans will surely want at least one of these two innings to reach three figures tomorrow. Otherwise another defeat will be looming.

Only one fifty in the last 30 innings in the 3 editions before the start of the Mirpur Test. When asked about such bad form in the pre-match press conference yesterday, Nazmul said that his batting knowledge is more than that of journalists. He also knows what kind of shot to play on which pitch.

But Bangladesh captain’s words and deeds did not match much. Nazmul, who was dismissed for 7 runs in the first session of the first day of the Test yesterday, failed to take hold of the team’s initial setback today. Keshav Maharaj scored 23 runs before being trapped lbw.

But in Bangladesh, Kyle Verena scored a century in Test batting for the first time on Asian soil. He did his work quietly by taking the lead in South Africa’s danger. First, he made 119 for the seventh wicket with Wian Mulder, then he made a partnership of 66 runs for the ninth wicket with Dane Peet. South Africa managed to take a lead of 202 runs in the first innings with the responsible batting of Verena, Mulder and Pitt.

In the first innings of yesterday’s Test, Bangladesh were bowled out for just 106 runs, the second lowest in an innings at Mirpur. However, South Africa lost 6 wickets and ended the first day with 140 runs in Taijul Islam’s whirlwind. At that time, many assumed that the Bangladesh bowlers would not allow the visitors’ lead to increase by picking up the remaining 4 wickets at the beginning of the first session today.

But Verena-Mulder seemed to have a different plan today. Tried to score quick runs without clinging to the crease, the two tried to play sweep shots.

Just before the mid-day break, Hasan Mahmood dismissed Mulder and Keshav Maharaj with two consecutive balls, but Verena formed another effective partnership with Pitt. That made South Africa’s innings longer by an hour and a half after the midday break. Mehdi Hasan Miraj took the last two wickets for the Proteas. The visitors totaled 300 and the lead crossed 200 before Verena was dismissed as the last batsman.

History says that Bangladesh has not won a Test after trailing by 200 or more runs in the first innings. Defeat was avoided only 3 times, both of which were blessed by rain. What will happen now will be clear tomorrow.
Short score

Bangladesh: 101/3 in 106 and 27.1 overs (Mahmudul 38*, Mushfiq 31*, Nazmul 23, Sadman 1, Muminul 0; Rabada 2/10, Maharaj 1/33).

South Africa 1st innings: 308 all out in 88.4 overs (Verena 114, Mulder 54, Peet 32, De Giorgi 30; Taijul 5/122, Hasan 3/66, Mirage 2/63).

* At the end of the second day, Bangladesh trailed by 101 runs.