The Cricket World Cup produced its first big upset on Sunday evening and surprise, surprise, South Africa were at the receiving end of the beating.
Having lost the first match of the competition to hosts England, the Proteas were expected to get the better of minnows Bangladesh at the Oval.
But they again failed to pitch up, with the only thing they won on the day being the toss.
Even then Faf du Plessis seemed to have made the wrong choice by sending in the Tigers to bat first as they lost the match by 21 runs.
South Africa, who also lost fast bowler Lungi Ngidi to a hamstring injury after his fourth over were clobbered all over the park by Shakib Al Hasan (75) and Mushfiqur Rahim (78) in particular.
In fact, South Africa’s bowlers never had control of the Bangladesh batsmen, with opener Soumaya Sarkar (42) and Mahmudullah (46) also chipping in with some useful runs to take their team to 330/6.
With their bowlers looking average, it was left to the batsmen to win them the match.
RUN OUT: Mushfiqur Rahim celebrates the run out of Quinton de Kock. Photo: Paul Childs/Reuters.
And after a solid start between Markram (45) and Quinton de Kock (23), the latter was run out by Bangladesh’s wicketkeeper after a horrible mix-up between the pair.
Captain Faf du Plessis then steadied the ship at No.3 with a good knock of 62 before both he and Markram were clean bowled by Bangladesh’s slow bowlers.
Battling to score runs freely against the slow bowlers, David Miller’s lifelines eventually ran out as he was finally caught for 38 off the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman.
With SA needing 129 runs off 14.5 overs, the table was set for Rassie van der Dussen and JP Duminy to finish off their opponents.
But Van der Dussen (41), Chris Morris (10) and Andile Phelukhwayo (10) left Duminy to fight a lone battle with the tail and with more than 50 runs to get off the last four overs, he had it all to do.
MATCH RESULT | SA FALL 21 RUNS SHORT
The Proteas have lost by 21 runs in their second fixture of the #CWC19. #ProteaFire🔥SAvBAN pic.twitter.com/QKh4URGGCc
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) June 2, 2019
Unfortunately he couldn’t and lost his wicket for 45 with 44 runs to get off 17 balls.
SA eventually got to 309/8, leaving the World Cup hopes hanging by a thread before the tournament has actually started.