De Villiers delivers series

AB de Villiers © Getty Images

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AB de Villiers’ half century guided South Africa to a seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the second one-day international on Wednesday to clinch the series 2-0.

De Villiers (69 not out) and Jean-Paul Duminy (49 not out) slowly and patiently reached the target of 174 after the Proteas had looked in trouble following a poor start in which Herschelle Gibbs and Hashim Amla were out cheaply.

Having been set a relatively meagre target, South Africa ended up labouring to victory in the 49th over after being largely restricted by the Bangladesh attack.

In contrast to their batsmen, who again proved fallible in the face of South Africa’s bowlers, Abdur Razzak and Mosharraf Hossain in particular troubled the Proteas with their accuracy and pace.

They restricted the tourists to just one boundary in the first six overs, during which Gibbs was trapped lbw by Mashrafe Mortaza for three.

The impressive Razzak then produced a fine catch off his own bowling to dismiss Hashim Amla for 16 to leave South Africa on 45 for two, but de Villiers soon settled in and brought up 50 for the tourists by punching Syed Rasel straight down the ground for four.

Skipper Graeme Smith (28) had looked in good touch but chased a wide Razzak delivery and dragged the ball on to his stumps.

Duminy and de Villers steadied the ship and their 119-run partnership eventually saw the visitors home. The latter brought up his half-century with a single to deep cover at the end of another lean over from Hossain.

Andre Nel picked up four wickets © Getty Images

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It was slow progress for the Proteas with the pair each hitting just four boundaries, the last of which was a six from de Villiers to seal the win.

Needing 20 off the last four overs, de Villiers took control and heaved Razzak over midwicket for four, before another attempted slog across the line brought him two more runs.

With one run required in the penultimate over, de Villiers launched Tamim Iqbal back over his head for a huge six.

Earlier, Andre Nel claimed 4-27 as South Africa restricted Bangladesh to 173.

Bangladesh slumped to 18 for four after little more than six overs as Nel bowled Iqbal, had Mohammad Ashraful caught at fine leg and forced Shahriar Nafees to edge to back-up wicketkeeper de Villiers, while Nazimuddin (11) was trapped lbw by Charl Langeveldt.

But a 119-run fifth-wicket partnership between Shakib Al Hasan (52) and Raqibul Hasan (63), who claimed his maiden limited over half-century, in 78 balls, helped the home side recover to 137 for four after 37 overs.

After Raqibul was caught at mid-on by Smith off Langeveldt to break the stand, South Africa picked up the remaining five wickets at a cost of just 36 runs to dismiss Bangladesh inside 50 overs and set themselves a required run rate of just over 3.5 per over.

Mortaza (20) was the only other Bangladesh player to reach double figures as Dhiman Ghosh and Razzak were dismissed for ducks.

Langeveldt finished with figures of 3-31, while Johan Botha picked up the remaining Bangladesh wicket when he had Shakib caught at short cover by Gibbs after he had brought up his sixth one-day fifty from 90 balls.

The third and final one-day game of the series will take place at the same ground on Friday.