South Africa win first Test against Bangladesh

DHAKA—Inspired by Jacques Kallis, South Africa wrapped up the opening Test against Bangladesh with a five-wicket victory on the fourth day here on Monday.
The South Africans, who resumed at 178-4, collected the required 27 runs while losing the wicket of Ashwell Prince (38) in 10.4 overs in the morning. The win saw South Africa go 1-0 up in the two-Test series. The second match begins in the port city of Chittagong on Friday. A. B. de Villiers remained unbeaten on 19 while Mark Boucher, who surpassed the world record of Adam Gilchrist (416) for most number of Test dismissals on the third day, was not out on two.
South Africa finished on 205-5, built around skipper Graeme Smith’s patient 62-run knock. It was the 46th defeat for Bangladesh in 52 Tests and the fifth on the trot against South Africa who defeated them by innings margins in all their previous encounters. Bangladesh though could take heart from the fact that they made South Africa, ranked fourth in the official Test tables, fight hard for the win. Bangladesh skipper Mohammad Ashraful rued his side’s failure to post a better second innings total. “We would have had a chance to win the game if he had scored 50-60 runs more in the second innings. But we lost the game on the morning of the third day itself when Kallis picked his five wickets,” he said.
“Our batting was largely disappointing, but our bowlers bowled very well on this kind of wicket, especially Shahadat Hossain who picked nine wickets in the match,” he said. Smith said his players were finding it difficult to adjust to the conditions after having played on hard, bouncy tracks back home for the last two months.
was a hard-fought Test match so I am pretty happy with the result. It was a difficult wicket to get used to in the first innings. “But we were a lot better in the second innings. The important thing is that the boys put up their hands up when it counted. It will take time for us to get used to these conditions after having played lot of cricket back home of late.”
The Proteas survived a brief scare thanks to a five-wicket haul by man of the match Kallis and the 104-ball knock by Smith. Bangladesh looked all set for a substantial lead on the third morning with talented opener Junaid Siddique going strong on 74 but Kallis cut short their aspirations through some inspired effort with the old ball. Kallis’ 5-30, his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, saw the hosts being bundled out for 182 and their second innings lead restricted to 204. Speedster Dale Steyn finished with 4-48 as Bangladesh’s innings folded up at the stroke of lunch.—Agencies