To win a series in South Africa is very difficult: Tamim

Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal said winning the first One-Day International gave them the confidence to “be aggressive and go for the kill” in the third and final encounter against South Africa in Centurion on Wednesday (March 23). Bangladesh won the first encounter by 38 runs - their maiden ODI win over South Africa in their own backyard - but were hammered in the second game. With everything to play for in Centurion, Bangladesh put up a solid performance and won the last match by nine wickets to seal the series 2-1.

"When we won the first match we started believing that there is a good chance that we can win the series and today it was a great team performance and I cannot be happier," said Tamim.

"To win a series in South Africa is very difficult. They won a series against full-strength India 3-0. We had the belief that we can win the series but for that we would have had to play extremely well. To win the series for the first time coming to South Africa we needed to do things out of the box and to play the best cricket that we possibly could.”

Right-arm paceman Taskin Ahmed took a five-wicket haul and that helped Bangladesh bundle out South Africa for just 154 runs in 37 overs. South Africa were 66/1 at one stage before Taskin wreaked havoc in the middle-overs. In reply, Bangladesh hunted down the total in just 26.3 overs, with Tamim and Liton Das adding 127 runs for the opening wicket. “The way they started, I did not think that we could bowl them out for 150 runs. In the team huddle we said that we need to give whatever we had.

“When they got a good start and we got two quick wickets at that point only one thing was going around in my mind that we will go for the kill. No matter what, we will be aggressive. I asked Taskin to bowl as fast as he could and try to get wickets. Normally if you go through our history you will see that we pick two to four wickets and then there is a big partnership and they do a good total. Today the attitude was that no matter what we will try to finish it as soon as possible after we picked four to five wickets."

Talking about his fast bowlers, Tamim said: “I am really proud of the way we played. A pacer picked up five wickets and he became the Player of the Series. Usually we think of the Bangladeshi team as a side of left-arm spinners or off-spinners but our fast bowling unit is improving and they have performed incredibly during the last two years.

"I am really proud to see Taskin picking the Player of the Match and Man of the Series awards. I cannot forget the contribution of other two pace bowlers Mustafizur and Shoriful. Mustafizur did the most difficult job, like he bowls in the death and at the top. He doesn't bowl in the middle where one can have two to three good overs. Every fast bowler did their job.”

Meanwhile, South Africa's head coach Mark Boucher wasn’t too pleased with his team’s performance in the series decider. "We lacked the intent today. fter we got off to a very good start today, we went to sleep. It is certainly not the way we want to play. We wanted to take the game forward after a good start. We just didn't manage to do that. I think they bowled well but you have to take some risks to create scoring opportunities. It was almost like we went out with the fear of getting out, rather than going out to set a total. The way the wicket played, it was over 300," he said.

"I think (the ODI side needs) belief in the way we want to play. We played spin well in Sri Lanka, but when we came to South Africa where the conditions helped the spinners, we went back to the old way of playing. We are still having a lot of chats, to try to get the guys to believe that this is the way to play spin in turning conditions.

"It was almost Indian-sort of conditions in our home country. We want the guys to be proactive, but they didn't do it today. We have been working on our shot selection. The guys know they have the armory to do that, but it is one thing to understand that you got it, but it is another thing to execute it. There seem to be a little bit of a block and fear of getting out, rather than understanding that the game is about runs and try to put the fear of failure out of your mind."

As a result, South Africa are now placed ninth in the ICC ODI Super League points table, putting their direct qualification to the 2023 World Cup at risk. "The alarm bells are always there. We are putting ourselves under pressure but we have to come to the party. I certainly believe that if we rock up, we stick to our game plans, we arrive with confidence, we can beat anyone in the world. We have shown that in the T20 World Cup.

"It is basically the same personnel in our one-day team as well. We have a lot of things to talk about. We have beaten those teams (India, England, Australia) before. We have to beat them again to qualify (to the World Cup)."