Mirpur, July 5 (IANS) A forceful unbeaten 79 by skipper Faf du Plessis and some late hitting by Rilee Rossouw (31 not out) took South Africa to 148 for four against Bangladesh in the first Twenty20 match here on Sunday.
Bangladesh will now have to score 149 in 20 overs for a win in the series opener at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, reports bdnews24.com.
They will play against South Africa in a two-match T20 series. The second match is on Tuesday.
Bangladesh opened with spinners Arafat Sunny and Nasir Hossain. Both struck early, sending the South African openers back to the pavilion cheaply.
Sunny removed the dangerous AB De Villiers (2) in the first over, forcing him to hole out at covers while Nasir sent Quinton De Kock (12) packing in the same fashion a couple of overs later.
But du Plessis brought the Proteas back into the game with some sensible hitting.
Faf du Plessis breezed to his sixth T20I half-century off 35 balls but Bangladesh spinners exploited the conditions with the ball not coming on to the bat.
Jean-Paul Duminy (18) tried to hit Arafat out of the ground but Nasir took a brilliant, well-judged catch in the deep after initially misjudging it.
David Miller (1) did not last long, falling leg before to a Shakib Al Hasan’s well flighted delivery.
But Roussow joined his skipper and shared 58 off 40 balls with some big hits to the fence and over it to take the Proteas to 148.