After his heroics with the ball in Kingsmead, Keshav Maharaj’s 84 on Day 2 put South Africa in a commanding position.
The spinner insisted that the pitch favors spin and that they will look to utilize the conditions on Day 3.
Keshav Maharaj has had a stellar Test series with both bat and ball.
On Day 2 of the second Test in particular, he batted with freedom and took South Africa to a dominant position.
His 84 included three sixes and nine fours and he was batting at a strike rate of 88.42.
Maharaj told the media after close on Day 2 that he had been putting in a lot of work on his batting behind the scenes.
“I’ve just been working hard at the nets. I’m happy it’s paying off now.” said Maharaj.
That knock from Maharaj put the team in a comfortable position even though Wiaan Mulder, as an all-rounder, yet again failed to make a decent contribution with the bat.
“Credit must go to Wiaan. I think he playewell with Kyle from last night and gave us a good foundation which allowed me to come play with a bit of freedom.
“I do believe we have a lot of depth in our batting in terms of our lower order,” Maharaj commented on Mulder’s performance so far.
On the other hand, Bangladesh were also putting on a fight to try and turn things around for their team,” said Maharaj.
“Even though they haven’t been able to sway the momentum in their favour like they did in Kingsmead, they still showed more fight than the Bangladeshi teams of the past.
“They were really good in the whiteball competition. I think at the end of the day Test cricket is hard. If you’re going to play Test cricket you need to front up.
“So yes I do believe they are a lot harder than what we’re used to and are a lot tougher in terms of the intensity. They have really good fast bowlers who aren’t slow.”
It looks like South Africa might wrap up the Test on Day three given that Bangladesh lost five wickets and are 314 runs behind.
What will be key will be the execution from South Africa’s spin duo of Maharaj and Simon Harmer on what is a turning pitch.
“In terms of the pitch compared to Kingsmead, this is turning quite viscously. In Kingsmead it was the odd ball that turned, this is obviously a lot more consistent.
“So hopefully we can try and utilize that tomorrow and see where it takes us,” Maharaj concluded.
