Janneman Malan bears brunt of Proteas' weird day in the field, but he'll be stronger for it

It was the archetypal innocuous, sublime piece of timing we've become used to from Janneman Malan.

Mehidy Hasan, taken to the cleaners by a rampant Quinton de Kock, dragged one down towards the leg-side and the hotshot Proteas opener gently flicked the delivery to the deep square fence.

Malan's stay at the crease hadn't been particularly fluent, but after a swift, 10-ball failure at SuperSport Park, he'd seemingly found a way build himself some form of a platform.

Two deliveries later, he got down and shaped for a paddle sweep but Mehidy bowled it a bit quicker, leading to him missing the ball completely and being castled.

Disheartening as it sounds, it was arguably the most appropriate way for him to end a patently weird day at the Wanderers for himself and the Proteas, despite the positive overall outcome of a 7-wicket win over Bangladesh.

Context

To contextualise, consider the following events.

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Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi bowl excellent opening spells to immediately put the Tigers on the back foot.

Wayne Parnell comes on as first change, promptly takes the key wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim to leave them reeling at 34/5 and trudges off with a hamstring injury the following over.

In a flash, skipper Temba Bavuma's carefully calibrated bowling plan is rendered irrelevant.

Tabraiz Shamsi's attacking left-arm wrist spin is brought on before Keshav Maharaj's more orthodox fare in a move ostensibly designed to capitalise on the new-ball pair's potency.

He bowls a wily and economical spell but keeps things simpler than usual because at the other end, Bavuma is bowling his occasional seamers admirably yet unthreateningly and, later on, Maharaj