The controversy marred South Africa cricket team took a big step forward towards sealing a semi final berth in the ICC T20 World Cup after beating Bangladesh by a comprehensive margin of 6 wickets with over 6 overs remaining.
It was a fast bowlers day out at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi with the ball nipping around throughout the game. With the dry grass and little bit of breeze aiding the pace bowlers, both SA strike bowlers, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje registered their best T20I bowling figures, sinking the Bangladesh batting line-up.
Choosing to bowl first after winning the toss, Temba Bavuma was rewarded with three powerplay wickets - all from Kagiso Rabada, who troubled Bangladesh batsmen with bounce and swing.
In the last two balls of the fourth over Rabada first trapped Naim Sheikh to mid wicket with a length ball and then caught Soumya Sarkar plumb in the front of the stumps with a booming inswinging yorker bowling from over the wicket.
That sent ripples across the Bangladesh batting order, who failed to find any sort of rhythm throughout the batting line up.
If Rabada was unplayable in his first spell, Nortje was scary to face as he used the bounce of the pitch to push players on the backfoot and recorded his best tally in the T20I cricket, picking three wickets for just eight runs in his 3.2 overs.
They were ably supported by medium pacer Dwaine Pretorius who bowled an economical spell of 3-0-11-1.
Bangladesh were bundled out for just 84 runs in 18.2 overs.
Coming into bat, the task should have been easy for the SA batters but it was not that kind of a wicket. Pacer Taskin Ahmed really made life difficult for the batters with his seam movement off the pitch and reduced SA to 28 for the loss of two wickets. With Quinton de Kock and Rezza Hendricks back into the hut, South Africa were dealt another blow in Aiden Markram who faced a spirited over from Taskin Ahmed. The Bangladeshi quick first jagged one back sharply into the right hander and then moved one out to catch a thick edge of the in form batsman.
However, captain Temba Bavuma took over from their and made sure that South Africa would not make a meal out of the chase and wrapped the game up before 14 overs.
With this win, South Africa have put themselves in a strong position to seal a semi-final spot alongside England with three wins from four games.
They will face England in their final game of the Super 12 stage on Saturday, 6 November.