 | Bangladesh stun South Africa
07 April, 2007
The World Cup fairytale for Bangladesh just got better as they defeated the world number-one ranked South Africans by 67 runs in their Super Eight clash at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Saturday.
After South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to field, middle order batsman Mohammad Ashraful led Bangladesh with the willow scoring 87 from 83 balls including 12 fours as the south-Asian side racked up 251 for 8 from their 50 overs.
In their chase, South Africa never looked comfortable against Bangladesh's spin attack and at one stage slumped to 87 for 6 before being all-out for just 184 in their 49th over, with left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak the star taking 3 for 25 off 9.4 overs.
Bangaldesh's win moves them off the bottom of the Super Eight table, and equal on two points with England and the West Indies, while South Africa remain in fourth place with four points from four matches against Super Eight opponents.
"It's a historic win," said Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh captain.
"We can now think of moving forward in the tournament.
"We lifted ourselves in this game and once we put up a good total on the board we knew we could fight."
Opening batsmen Javed Omar and Tamim Iqbal (38) got Bangladesh off to a steady start as they constructed a partnership of 42 runs before Omar was caught by Smith off the bowling of Andre Nel for 17.
This started a top order collapse for Bangladesh as they lost their next three wickets for a further 42 runs to be struggling at 84 for 4, with Nel the destroyer on his way to impressive figures of 5 for 45 from his ten overs.
Release link:http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9703E09F-10A1-4840-9A9A-856BAE269DE7.htm
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