Rossouw reality-check hits blunt Tigers

Prior to the match, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan spoke about exploiting South Africa's "must-win game" pressure as they were denied a certain win against Zimbabwe because of rain. South Africa, for sure, were under a bit of pressure. Last year, they won four out of five matches but could not make the semi-final because of low net run rate. So, they just could not afford to lose the match against Bangladesh. 

And Taskin's early strike to remove South Africa captain Temba Bavuma in the first over of the match probably made some people think that they would once again crumble under pressure, the pressure Shakib spoke about. 

But South Africa are, on paper, one of the strongest sides in this tournament with almost all bases covered and Bangladesh shouldn't have been a very difficult opponent for them in Australian conditions. On the other hand, Bangladesh were quite confident after their emphatic bowling display against the Netherlands, led by speedster Taskin Ahmed. When Taskin got his third first-over wicket in the tournament, the fans at the Sydney Cricket ground and back home thought they were in for a treat. 

Now Taskin was up against Rilee Rossouw, who smashed a hundred in his last innings coming into this match. It was a fascinating battle. In the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20, Taskin bowled to Rossouw in four innings and got him out twice. But what's more important is that the southpaw had a strike-rate of 230.3 in 33 deliveries he faced off the pacer. It was important for Rossouw and South Africa to take the best Bangladesh bowler down.

Taskin hemorrhaged 21 runs in that over [and a review went South Africa's way] and South Africa were off and running. The over put a lot of pressure on Taskin and when he came back to bowl his third over later in the match, he was smashed again for 23 runs. 

"I think when the review went my way, you knew you've got a bit of luck. And also probably the one pull shot I played off Taskin just got me going," Rossouw said in the post-match press conference. 

58 off Rossouw's 109 runs came against spin and the left-hander had a strike-rate of exactly 200 against spin in that innings. Known as one of the better players of spin in the South Africa team, Rossouw mentioned that his time in the BPL and also in Pakistan and the UAE helped him improve his batting against slow bowling. 

"I think that [the BPL experience] definitely does help. I was there for, what, three years, if I remember correctly, and two of them I was leading run scorer. I played against a lot of the boys back home and with a lot of them. So I wasn't too unfamiliar with what was to be expected out there. I would say, yes, that definitely helped me in today's match."

Rossouw's heroics somewhat overshadowed the brilliance of Quinton de Kock. He wasn't in the best of forms, leading up to the tournament. He struggled big time against India in a stiff chase and had to even apologise to David Miller because of his slow innings. He was in his elements in the [incomplete] match against Zimbabwe and against Bangladesh (63 off 38). It's a relief for the Proteas ahead of big games [against India and Pakistan].

Bangladesh obviously had plans against the South Africa batters but it all fell apart as Rossouw put on a magnificent show. 

"Obviously we had some plans against Rilee, especially with their fast bowlers. I think at the start of the innings we didn't bowl those balls that we wanted to bowl, especially with our fast bowlers. And once a batsman is set in T20 cricket, we know how dangerous a batsman he can be. And that's exactly what he showed today," Shakib said.

Bangladesh have always been extremely vulnerable as a batting unit against high-pace and wrist-spin and this weakness of their batting was badly exposed as Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi took seven wickets among them.

It was a "history-repeats-itself" moment as South Africa potentially took the game away from Bangladesh in the powerplay (63/1), exactly what New Zealand did to Australia in the tournament-opener on the same ground. And the SCG has seen two of the biggest defeats in the ongoing tournament. 

The only positive maybe for Bangladesh was a brief fightback at the death overs with the ball. South Africa could manage only 29 runs in the last five overs as Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud and Shakib Al Hasan did quite well. South Africa were clearly 20-25 runs short and Bangladesh started off brilliantly with a 17-run over. But apart from that, there were not many things to cheer about for the Tigers as they succumbed to an embarrassing defeat on their debut at the iconic SCG.