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Bangladesh walked off Visakhapatnam’s flood-lit outfield knowing they had let another one slip. For the second time in three matches they had an opponent wobbling at 78 for 5, and for the second time the final handshake went the other way. South Africa got home by three wickets, and Bangladesh were left dissecting three dropped catches, a handful of full tosses and, above all, a ball that felt like a bar of soap once the dew arrived.
“Gripping the ball was quite difficult, there was dew around,” captain Nigar Sultana admitted. “The ball was wet. I tried to use our best bowlers at the death. Sometimes it is hard to hold on to the momentum, but our bowlers did well. But we learned a lot today, which we can use in the future.”
The match story is straightforward. Bangladesh’s 232 looked perfectly defendable when Rabeya Khan induced a miscued drive from Laura Wolvaardt on 11, only to spill the return chance. The South Africa captain added a steady 31 and kept the chase alive. Chloe Tryon was put down on 50 by substitute Sumaiya Akter at wide long-on with 37 needed from 36 balls, and, with nine required from eight, Shorna Akter grassed a sitter at long-off to reprieve Nadine de Klerk. De Klerk finished the job next over: four through point, six over mid-wicket, thank you very much.
Bangladesh’s dressing-room mood was mixed: frustration at what might have been, pride at competing so hard against a side ranked well above them. “I am not disappointed, I am proud. The way the girls fought for every ball. It wasn’t easy for us to keep a close game in control. I am happy as a captain seeing my team give 110%,” Nigar said.
Yet regret lingered. “Certainly, there’ll be regret because if we would have won such close matches, it would have been a great moment for the team. We have a lot of room for improvement. We want to do better in the last three games.”
Fielding coach Mamatha Maben, speaking quietly outside the team huddle, put the misses down to moisture and nerves in equal measure. “You can train all you like with wet balls,” she said, “but a night game, crowd noise, scores level – it’s different pressure. We’ve got to find ways to close those moments.”
Analytically, Bangladesh did many things right. Their spinners shared 23 tidy overs, varying pace and angle on a sluggish surface. Rabeya, despite her drop, beat the bat often enough to finish with 2 for 43. Marufa Akter’s new-ball swing had South Africa 23 for 2 before dew dulled her grip. What they lacked was a calm final five overs, the area South Africa won decisively: 46 runs, zero chances offered.
South Africa, for their part, will quietly file this under “got out of jail”. Wolvaardt’s measured 31 gave the middle order breathing space, Tryon’s 59 off 55 shifted momentum, and de Klerk’s clean hitting iced it. Coach Hilton Moreeng was honest: “We were pushed, absolutely. Credit to Bangladesh – they’re no longer just scrapping, they’re playing winning cricket.”
Bangladesh next face Australia. They will take heart from reducing England and South Africa to 78 for 5; they will also know moral victories are a poor substitute for points. The message from Nigar was clear enough: calm hands, dry towels, no excuses.
There was dew from the very start of South Africa’s chase – even Marufa Akter, usually immaculate with the new ball, struggled to keep her length – and it never really lifted. A small detail, perhaps, but on nights like this small details decide matches.
