Bangladesh may have started the World Cup as underdogs but the way their top-order is batting against South Africa would suggest that they are among the contenders. First, their opening batsmen Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar got them off to a great start despite South Africa putting them into bat, obviously with expectations of creating problems in the first 10 overs.
While Tamim is the bigger star, he wasn't having an easy time and batted well below par. However, his partner, Sarkar, took the attack to the South African pace battery of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo and Chris Morris. While Sarkar fell for 42 as the second man to be dismissed, the next two batters, Shakib al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, both veterans and former captains, showed their class by putting up a partnership of over a hundred and batting in a very positive manner.
The result was that while they weren't taking too many risks, they were still managing to get boundaries almost every over. The Tigers crossed the 200-run mark with just two wickets down and there are more 15 overs remaining. 350+, or even more, looks very probable. Both set batsmen are batting at 50+ and if they get to a hundred, an even bigger score also cannot be ruled out.
