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It started to pour down heavily in Mirpur around the time of what could have been the scheduled tea break on the fourth day of the first Test between Bangladesh and South Africa. It had been almost three hours since the hosts surrendered to the Proteas. 

There were forecasts of rain for the last two days. But Bangladesh could only manage to hold the Proteas for merely a session on the penultimate day. 

The defeat had been looming for Bangladesh since the first morning, when the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side slipped to 60-6 after opting to bat. They were all out for 106. 

South Africa, in their first innings, slipped to 108-6 too. But they recovered. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Jaker Ali led Bangladesh to put up a more reasonable total in the second innings, but that was not enough.

Bangladesh expected that the Mirpur wicket would favour the spinners as usual. But they read the pitch wrong, as out of 33 wickets that fell in the Test, 16 have been taken by the pacers. 

Mehidy thinks that this type of question would not have arisen if the spinners could do slightly better.

‘If we’d bowled better, particularly me. If Nayeem had bowled better, this question would not have been raised. I didn’t bowl well either,’ said Mehidy, who is the highest wicket taker for Bangladesh in this cycle of the ICC World Test Championship, after the match.

‘If I had performed better and taken the 6-7 wickets the team expected, we could have won the match. But in the first innings, I couldn’t take early wickets, and that’s where we fell behind’, he added. 

But bowling hasn’t been the main problem for Bangladesh. 

Even South Africa were surprised to see this type of wicket. South Africa’s stand-in skipper for the first Test, Aiden Markram, later stated that in hindsight, he thought both teams would have preferred to have an extra-pacer in their arsenals.

It was the batting that cost Bangladesh dearly in this Test. The Tigers have never beaten South Africa, but, given the inexperienced team the Proteas have, many thought that it would have been their best chance.

Mehidy, who scored 97 runs in the second innings, admitted that.

‘We acknowledge our failures. We, the batters, couldn’t score runs. If the second innings’ runs had come in the first innings, the match could have turned out differently. We were all out before two sessions were over. That’s why we fell behind. In Test cricket, the first innings is very important,’ he said.

It is not that Bangladesh batting failed in this match only. In the current cycle of the Test Championship, Mehidy is Bangladesh’s top scorer with the bat as well. But he mostly bats at seven or lower. 

Mehidy certainly knows where the problem lies. ‘If there are runs on the board, it’s much harder for the bowlers,’ he said. 

‘Not every batter will score, but at least three to four should make big runs. That helps the team’, Mehidy added.