South Africa vs Bangladesh in 2021-22

One-day internationals (3): South Africa 1 (10pts), Bangladesh 2 (20pts)
Test matches (2): South Africa 2 (24pts), Bangladesh 0 (0pts)

Bangladesh had played 28 official internationals in South Africa, and won only one - against West Indies in the first World Twenty20 in September 2007. And yet they confounded their hosts by winning two of the three ODIs, with seamer Taskin Ahmed the trump card

South Africa did win both Tests, although again the script was unexpected: despite pitches expected to favour the seamers, the success was mainly down to the slow men, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, who shared 29 of the 40 wickets, and bowled unchanged in both second innings. Even so, Mahmudul Hasan scored the tour's solitary century in the Tests, where only Maharaj and Taijul Islam claimed five-wicket hauls.

The focus before the Bangladeshis arrived was as much on people who might not be part of the narrative: would Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen choose to play in the Tests rather than miss the start of the IPL? And would Shakib Al Hasan be around for either of the Tests, with several of his family hospitalised by Covid?

The answer to both questions was no. Speaking before he knew the answer, South Africa's Test captain Dean Elgar said: "You don't want players to miss out on a big occasion like the IPL, but I'd still like to think playing for your country is bigger than that." After the Tests, which proved South Africa could win without a bevy of bruising quicks, his tune changed: "I don't know if those guys are going to be selected again - that's out of my hands."

First the teams had to negotiate a 50-over series that, considering the high-veld venues where all three matches were staged, seemed designed to improve South Africa's position in the World Cup Super League. Bangladesh, though, upset the apple cart in the first game, before South Africa struck back in style at the Wanderers, where Rabada produced a fine performance on a responsive pitch. But Taskin matched that at Centurion three days later to help his team to a 2-1 win.

The start of the Test series was delayed over half an hour by a malfunctioning Kingsmead sightscreen. Bizarrely, the Bangladeshis claimed this was part of a mountain of evidence of bias by the umpires, who - the visitors alleged - had denied their bowlers the advantage of using early moisture in the pitch. Make that a molehill. It's true that Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock were not at their best: eight of their decisions in the First Test were overturned.

But four calls went in South Africa's favour and four against - an open-and-shut case for objectivity. Of three other not-out decisions that, the gizmos said, would have been changed had they been sent upstairs, two denied wickets for Bangladesh. If the captains didn't think their players' appeals were worthy of being referred, why should the umpires be held responsible? Elgar dismissed the complaints, saying Test cricket was "a man's environment". That wasn't his only slip: between the Tests, he fell over in the shower and gashed his forehead. Most of the rest, however, he got right.