Rilee Rossouw says bowling second favoured South Africa as they beat Bangladesh in the first T20 international in Mirpur on Sunday. Kobus Pretorius reports.

The Proteas won comfortably in the end by 52 runs after they initially struggled to get going when Faf du Plessis won the toss and decided to bat.

Du Plessis’ fine innings of 79 off 61 balls gave South Africa a defendable score of 148-4 and a new look bowling unit did the rest.

‘I thought both sides bowled spin really well,’ Rossouw said. ‘Bowling second favoured us more. We looked at the statistics before the game and knew that 150 was a good score, especially on this wicket during the day.’

Rossouw joined Du Plessis out in the middle with the score on 90-4 and together they shared a partnership of 58 to ensure South Africa had a respectable total to bowl at.

‘When I joined Faf on 90-4 we decided I should play myself in and start attacking from the 17th over. We wanted someone who was in to be there at the end.

‘Faf played a fantastic innings, especially after we lost two early wickets. He took the games to them and played his natural attacking style.’

Kagiso Rabada bowled well as he took 2-28 in three overs, while David Wiese also grabbed his opportunity with both hands as he claimed 2-12 in three overs.

Then Aaron Phangiso (1-21) and JP Duminy entered the attack and especially Duminy was impressive as he kept it tight, only conceding 11 runs in his four overs while taking two big wickets as well.

Wayne Parnell and Kyle Abbott also chipped in with a wicket apiece.

‘Our bowlers bowled really well and stuck to their guns and we took our catches,’ Rossouw said.

South Africa will be hoping for more of the same when the teams meet on Tuesday for the second T20.