'Pitch much better than Potch'

While the batsmen may be feeling the heat from all the talk of the pace and bounce in store for Bangladesh in Bloemfontein's Mangaung Oval, the venue for the second Test against South Africa, a bouncy and fast pitch may bear succour for the Bangladesh pacers who were under the whip during the first Test in Potchefstroom where the hosts piled on 496 for three and 248 for six without much bother.

While Shafiul Islam and especially the wicketless Taskin Ahmed were taken to the cleaners, Bangladesh's most promising pacer Mustafizur Rahman escaped the shellacking with some creditable economical bowling that yielded three wickets across the two innings. In typical Mustafizur style however, he was stingy with his words and his opinions when talking about the second Test.

"I don't get excited when I see the wicket," he told reporters after practice at the venue yesterday. "I am not excited by the fact that the ball will zip off the surface; if I play my job is to bowl well and contribute to the team."

However, he did say Mangaung's was a good wicket. "I didn't really look closely at the wicket; I walked past it. It is a much better wicket than the one we had for the last match."

The Tigers seemed in good spirits during fielding practice before rain ushered them indoors, with Mustafizur especially seeming much more animated than he has ever been before microphones and cameras. "Wins and losses happen," he said when asked about the team's morale after the chastening 333-run loss in the first Test. "Everyone is good. There is one more Test; everyone is trying to prepare in a way that will help them do well."

Mustafizur took the high quality wickets of Dean Elgar in the first innings in Potch, and those of Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla while bowling around the wicket in the second innings.

"The wicket was slow, and we can't bowl at 140 kmph like them [South Africa pacers], so I tried to use my variations like the cutters and bowling around the wicket," the 22-year-old pacer quipped.