Bangladesh: 106 all out (Mahmudul Joy 30; Wiaan Mulder 3/22)
South Africa: 308 all out (Kyle Verreynne 114; Taijul Islam 5/122)
Bangladesh: 283/7 (Mehidy Miraz 87*; Kagiso Rabada 4/35)
Bangladesh lead by 81 runs
Bad weather in Mirpur on Wednesday saw only 58 overs bowled on day three of the ongoing Test match between the Proteas and Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.
The ‘Moving Day’ started with Bangladesh trailing South Africa by 101 runs with seven wickets in hand.
Opening batter Mahmudul Joy and middle-order batter Mushfiqur Rahim were entrusted with eating away the deficit and helping the team set a decent target for the visitors to chase.
However, with the ball fairly new, Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada got in the wickets almost immediately on day three, removing Joy (40) in his second over of the day.
In the very same over, Rabada clean-bowled Rahim (11) in an almost identical way that he cleaned him up in the first innings to reach 300 Test wickets.
The 29-year-old was getting the ball to deviate towards the right-handed batter’s stumps.
With the batter still new at the crease, he did not move his feet and thus allowed the delivery to crash into his middle stump, sending it cartwheeling.
Spinner Keshav Maharaj followed suit with the wicket of Liton Das (7) as he got the right-handed batter to edge the ball to Kyle Verreynne behind the stumps to leave the hosts six down eight overs into the day.
At that point, the visitors were confident that they would roll over the hosts inside the first session, but in came a determined Mehidy Miraz and Jaker Ali.
The pair batted together for over 40 overs, took the score from 112 to 250 and well past South Africa’s lead.
Miraz was more of the aggressor in the partnership as made light work of Dane Piedt’s off-spin and held his own against Maharaj and Rabada.
Miraz reached his ninth Test half-century, while Ali (58) reached his maiden as the pair frustrated the South Africans until Maharaj got the better of the latter in front to get his third wicket.
With Ali out, Miraz was the hosts’ only hope for a decent enough target to be able to challenge South Africa on a worn and torn wicket in Dhaka.
However, bad light interrupted play and eventually saw the day’s play called early, with Bangladesh 81 runs ahead with three wickets to use to get as many runs as possible.
Day Four will get under way at 5.45am on Thursday.