Ashraful is confident

A 400-plus total in the three-day warm-up match gave Bangladesh some hope before they go into the Warid first Test against South Africa starting at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Its really a very encouraging sign. Seven players of our Test squad have played in the practice game and they all know now that these South Africans dont intimidate them, Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful told New Age.
Batting had been a major concern for us in the last few months. So, a good performance in the three-dayer was very crucial for us. We have restored our confidence with the innings of Junaed (Siddique), Sakib (al Hasan) and Aftab (Ahmed), added Ashraful.
Junaed scored a scintillating 103 before Sakib and Aftab hammered 73 and 45 respectively to help the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI pile up 412-8 in response to South Africas 397 in the drawn game.
Given the fact that Bangladeshs highest first innings total is just 143 in the last five Tests since Ashraful took over from the Habibul Bashar in June 2007, the warm-up came as a huge blessing.
Maybe it was a practice match and the South Africans were also not that serious, but from our point of view it was very important, said Ashraful.
South African captain Graeme Smith played down the impact of the match and said he will go with a different strategy in the Test match. Smith also hoped to a have different wicket at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Bangladesh skipped practice on Wednesday while for the South Africans it was optional, so only five players turned up. Meanwhile, Robin Pieterson and Neil McKenzie arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday and went straight to the stadium. The other three players were Dale Steyn, Andre Nel and JP Duminy.
McKenzie is set to replace Duminy in the first Test as a spinner while Pieterson is unlikely to play, South African team sources said. In the first Test their only spinning option could be Johan Botha.
It will be only the second Test for Botha, who was reported by umpires Aleem Dar and Billy Bowden for having a suspected action in his debut against Australia. He was banned for a year before undergoing a series of biomechanical tests to have got his action cleared.
But Botha might be still wary as Dar will be standing this time as well with Steve Bucknor, who is making his Test return. Each days play in the Test series will start at 10:00am and will be televised by Neo Sports.