It's still bleeding

If the South Africans had felt that it was a Bloody Sunday after their cricket teams' thrashing seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in the second one-day international, then yesterday must have been a black Wednesday for them. It was a day they suffered a more embarrassing nine-wicket defeat against the 'abject minnows'.

That was how one of their own portrayed the Bangladesh cricket team, which after Wednesday's thumping victory in the third ODI in Chittagong, not only completed a never-seen-before turnaround but also completed a maiden series win against South Africa -- their fourth on the trot following wins against Zimbabwe, Pakistan and India.

The gentleman, who termed the Bangladesh team as abject minnows and mocked them with their nickname as 'hitherto tigers', is revered South African cricket writer Telford Vice. He did not stop there in an article published in South Africa's Sunday Times, where he termed the Bangladesh bowling 'a popgun attack' while referring to South Africa's poor total of 162 in the second ODI.

Vice is a freelance writer. He is one of those cricket columnists whose in-depth articles anybody will enjoy. This reporter first came across the soft-spoken South African gentleman way back in 2001 in Zimbabwe while covering Bangladesh's first full series. A second meeting with the Cape Town-based writer was during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. On both occasions he was so caring with this reporter and so sympathetic towards Bangladesh despite all those demoralizing defeats that it was moving to say the least.

But the adjectives he used while writing from two oceans away was unlike someone who has set a high standard for others to follow. May be he still has got the same impression about Bangladesh that he had seen in Zimbabwe and South Africa long ago.

But after what the Tigers did in Chittagong, we can at least safely say that Sunday was not a fluke. The 'hitherto tigers' played like true Tigers in their own den against the African lions. The popgun attack popped up again like real guns to floor a vaunted batting line-up. There were two teams in the middle on Wednesday and it was South Africa that looked like a hitherto lion, at least for a day.

South Africa might have desperately missed their batting genius, AB de Villiers, in the one-day series. And one can rest assured that it's going to a big issue just to belittle Bangladesh's outstanding success.

This is not something new. It had happed after Bangladesh's 3-0 win against an 'inexperienced' Pakistan and 2-1 success against a 'burnt out' India. Nobody likes to be defeated because it hurts. And the Tigers are now increasingly becoming a team that invites the big names to their home turf only to hurt them hard on the playing field.

And they don't care if anyone likes it or not.