DHAKA – Bangladesh’s slender hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup they are co-hosting were crushed mercilessly by South Africa on Saturday with a 206-run Group B defeat. The result means South Africa will top the group and should have the easiest — on paper — draw of the qualifiers in the last eight against the fourth-placed Group A side.
It also ensured that India, England and the West Indies will progress to the knockout stage although the order in which they do will depend on Sunday’s match between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Darren Sammy’s men in Chennai. Bangladesh were in trouble from the moment that South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch which took spin but was otherwise reliable.
Smith and Hashim Amla shared a 98-run opening stand to set solid foundations for South Africa’s 284-8, a target which would have challenged any team never mind a talented but inexperienced Bangladesh side. The hosts never recovered from an abysmal start with the first five wickets crashing by the 16th over with only 36 runs on the board with all the batsmen departing in low single figures.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan (30), the only Bangladeshi to reach double figures, fought a solitary battle to make the score more respectable but he could only delay the inevitable as wickets tumbled at the other end. A huge ironic roar went up in the stands when Bangladesh crawled past the 58-run mark, their lowest ever ODI score which they recorded against West Indies earlier in this event, but 20 runs later it was all over and Bangladesh became the only one of the three co-hosts not to reach the knockout stages.
Fellow co-hosts Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan are the qualifiers from Group A. While the majority of the 25,000-strong crowd had already abandoned their seats long before the final curtains came down on Bangladesh’s campaign, the few that stuck around vented their frustration by tossing their banners, caps and team jerseys towards the outfield.
As Shakib walked up for the presentation ceremony, boos and jeers echoed around the Shere Bangla National Stadium. He had a simple message for the nation whose World Cup dreams now lay in tatters. “Just sorry,” said the embarrassed skipper. “We missed a big opportunity. The way we have been performing for the last 12 months we thought we will have a very good chance to qualify for the second round.
“But we didn’t play good cricket throughout the tournament. Though we won some matches, we didn’t play good cricket.” That lack of application by the home side allowed South Africa to bowl out their opponents yet again, a feat they achieved in all six of their group games.
