Hard work pays off for South Africa's Maharaj in tale of two innings
Keshav Maharaj said the hard work put in as he went wicketless through Bangladesh’s first innings paid dividends after he took 7-32 in the second to lead South Africa to a dominant 220-run victory on Monday. Left-arm spinner Maharaj bowled 37 overs without reward in Bangladesh’s opening total of 298, but was devastatingly effective in helping restrict them to a paltry 53 in pursuit of their victory target of 274.
Read Also1st Test: South Africa thrash Bangladesh by 220 runsSouth African spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer sent Bangladesh crashing to a 220-run defeat on the fifth day of the first Test at Kingsmead on Monday.
He became South Africa’s most successful spinner since the country’s readmission to the international arena in 1991, moving past Paul Adams’s previous best mark of 134 Test wickets to take his tally to 141. "I'm actually quite emotional. I'm just glad I could take the team over the line today," Maharaj said at the post-match presentation. "As cricketers, sometimes we are impatient people. I think when you bowl long spells you want to get reward and it's just about sticking to the processes. "The hard work and toil from the first innings paid dividends in the second." Maharaj bowled in tandem with off-spinner Simon Harmer, who was playing his first Test in seven years after a spell in English county cricket with Essex. Harmer finished with match figures of 7-124. It is unlikely the pair would have played together had South Africa not been without their entire frontline pace attack, who are away at the Indian Premier League. "Fortunately, I had Simon at the other end, who provided control. We had a bit of a stop on the game, which allowed us to strike with our (attacking) fields," Maharaj said.
