The AB show

When Shakib Al Hasan trapped Quinton de Kock in front yesterday with the third ball of the 18th over of South Africa's innings, Bangladesh had taken their first wicket in 85.5 overs of ODI bowling, during which they conceded 550 runs -- going back three games to the Champions Trophy semifinal, where Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed by skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in the 14th over in June. Two balls later Shakib bowled South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis with a peach that dipped and landed on middle, beat the batsman's desperate lunge and looped in on middle and off stump. For a moment it seemed that the bowling had turned a corner, but the moment was too brief.

In strode AB de Villiers, making a comeback to the side since last playing for his country as captain in the Champions Trophy in June. He didn't have a bat in the first ODI, which Bangladesh lost by 10 wickets.

Bangladesh had managed to keep a tight leash on things for nearly an hour, with the last boundary coming in the eighth over. De Villiers first order of business was to break the shackles, and he did that in the ninth and 10th deliveries of the 21st over off Mashrafe when he first over-pitched and was cracked through cover, and then when he overcompensated and was pulled to midwicket. While Shakib's ODI form -- he had not taken a wicket in his last four ODIs -- was a welcome sight for Bangladesh, it was unfortunate that Mashrafe had a rare bad day yesterday.

For pacer Taskin Ahmed, however, it seemed another dot on a downward graph. De Villiers reserved his next batch for the youngster, hitting him for two consecutive boundaries in the 26th over, by the end of which he reached 40 off 28, soon bringing up his 50 off his 34th delivery with a boundary off part-time leg-spinner Sabbir Rahman, whose solitary over contained three short balls, only two of which De Villiers hit for four; perhaps his only failure yesterday. Amla was on 38 off 44 balls when De Villiers came in, and within 14 overs of their partnership, the latter had caught up on 66 at the beginning of the 32nd over from Nasir Hossain, whose full toss in that over was deposited over midwicket for De Villiers's first six.

Having reached 86 off 60, Amla's dismissal in the next over for 85, caught behind off Rubel Hossain -- Bangladesh's best bowler of the day -- was the signal for De Villiers to really turn it on. He reached his 22nd ODI hundred with a single to deep midwicket off his 68th delivery and then proceeded to hit six sixes and five fours off his next 36 deliveries, which fetched 76 runs before Rubel got him out caught for his highest score in ODIs in the 48th over.

South Africa scored 98 off the last 10 overs  -- 2.2 of which fetched just 10 runs after De Villiers's departure -- the bowling was at the mercy of the most innovative batsman in the world. Mashrafe was hit for four of those sixes, as slower bouncers and quicker bouncers gave way to full-pitched deliveries, with the result the same as Bangladesh's captain finished with figures of none for 82 off 10. Taskin was much the same as he gave up the two other maximums with overpitched deliveries.

De Villiers has done worse to better attacks, so it was actually a boon that the punishment was not even worse for Bangladesh.