Bangladesh have continued their stunning success in One Day International cricket as they won their first bilateral series against South Africa on Wednesday.
The Tigers achieved the feat by beating the Proteas by nine wickets in the third and final ODI of a three-match series at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
Bangladesh started a new era in ODI cricket under the leadership of Mashrafe Mortaza in the last ICC World Cup and continued their success wining ODI series against mighty opponents Pakistan, India and South Africa.
Batting first, the visitors put only 168 runs for 9 wickets in a rain-hit match that was reduced to 40 overs. Bangladesh was set a target of 170-run according to the D/L method which the hosts reached in 26.1 overs losing only one wicket.
Like the previous match that the Tigers won by 7 wickets, Bangladesh bowlers troubled the Protea batsmen who started losing wickets from the beginning.
JP Duminy was the highest scorer for the visitors who made 51 runs off 70 balls with 3 boundaries. Besides, David Miller scored 44 runs.
Bangladesh ace-all rounder Shakib Al Hasan bagged 3 wickets for 33 in 8 overs and became the seventh cricketer to bag 200 wickets and score 4,000 runs in ODIs.
Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain claimed 2 wickets each while skipper Mashrafe Mortaza took one to enter into the 200-wicket elite club.
Chasing a 170-run target off 40 overs, Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar made a 154-run opening partnership to secure the nine-wicket win with 83 balls to spare.
Sarkar reached his second successive fifty with a four off Morne Morkel in the 16th over. He played only 41 balls and smashed 8 boundaries for that.
Sarkar, who was dropped by Behardien at 71, became the highest scorer as a Bangladeshi batsman against South Africa but missed his second ODI century for only 10 runs.
The 22-year left-hand batsman scored 90 off 75 balls hitting 13 fours and one six. Soumya and Tamim added 154 runs off 148 balls in the opening stand.
Tamim also bagged his 31th ODI fifty off 70 balls and was unbeaten on 61.
