South Africa will have to give it their best shot to beat Bangladesh, says JP Duminy

Allrounder Jean-Paul Duminy is convinced South Africa need to be at their best to beat Bangladesh on their turf.

Bangladesh and South Africa will lock horns in the first of the two T20Is at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

The 31-year old shares his T20 captain Faf du Plessis’ view that the Tigers are no more the underdogs and that winning against them will be no cakewalk.

“Bangladesh have played good cricket. We are not taking this lightly. This is definitely going to be a tough series,” he said before his team’s practice on Thursday.

Bangladesh rose to seventh in ODI ranking beating sub-continental giants India and Pakistan in successive series. They blanked Pakistan 3-0 before prevailing 2-1 over India.

“They have been successful in recent series. We will definitely try to beat Bangladesh giving it our best shot and leave it in the park.”

Bangladesh may have been indomitable at their own backyard, but Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s men had their most successful campaign in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.

“Definitely the perception has changed in the last one-two years, especially how they have done in ICC tournaments. They went to the [quarter-finals] of the World Cup,” Duminy said.

“They are even more challenging in their own conditions.”

The Tigers’ 10-match winning streak at home ended in the last match against India.

Bangladesh have grown in confidence by winning matches with their aggressive brand of cricket.

“I see a quiet confidence. They have built a squad that they think can be competitive against those they play against. The more they win, the more will be their confidence,” Duminy added.

“Bangladesh are going to come out fighting and we have to counter-punch them.”

The Proteas will warm up for the series by playing a T20 against the BCB XI at Fatullah on Friday.

“For us the series starts tomorrow (Friday)… We know how important tomorrow’s warm-up game is. We would want to get the best out of the conditions we are going to face.”

A number of the squad members played in the Indian Premier League after the World Cup. But this is the first series for South Africa, who are ranked fourth in the ODIs, after they crashed out of the showcase event against New Zealand in a semi-final thriller.

“World Cup is pretty much behind us. This is a new season, new goals as individual players.”

“We want to up our ranking in terms of T20 cricket. We have a few games leading up to the T20 World Cup next year. That’s our main goal.”

South Africa one-day captain AB de Villiers is yet speak to the media but he sent a tweet during the practice.

“Definitely summer time in Bangladesh! Training been going well & ready to take on a confident Bangladesh side in their backyard #ProteaFire.”

The second 20-over game will be played two days later at the same venue.

A three-match ODI series will be played out following the T20Is, on Jul 10, 12 and 15. The first two will also be held in Mirpur while Chittagong’s Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium will host the third.

The first Test will start on Jul 21 in Chittagong before the teams return to Dhaka for the second, on 30.

Prolific batsman Hashim Amla will lead the South Africans in the Tests.