Ashraful gives tiger big chance

Mohammad Ashraful hit a brilliant 87 off 83 balls for Bangladesh as they surprised South Africa with 251-8, easily their best in World Cups.

Ashraful revived memories of his century against Australia in Cardiff with some amazing lofted drives and sweep shots off the fast bowlers.

It put the efforts of Essex-bound Andre Nel in the shade, the recalled South Africa bowler taking an excellent 5-45.

Despite good batting conditions, South Africa could find their chase awkward.

And but for an early Bangladesh collapse at Antigua's Providence Stadium, it could have been an even taller order.

A promising start between Tamim Iqbal and Javed Omar looked like building a solid platform for the Tigers.

The openers managed to see off Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock, Tamim in particular playing some audacious shots as he danced down the wicket to hoist both men to the ropes for four.

But the introduction of Nel - recalled for the rested Andrew Hall - shifted the momentum in South Africa's favour.

In a typically fiery spell full of energy and effort, he unsettled the Bangladesh batsmen and ripped apart their top order.

He had Omar caught in the gully by Graeme Smith for 17 and then continued Habibul Bashar's poor run of form with a brilliant one-handed return catch to dismiss the skipper for five.

Nel captured three early wickets on his return to the team

Nel was not done, either, seducing Tamim (38) down the pitch once more and getting an edge which Mark Boucher comfortably pouched behind the stumps.

When Jacques Kallis had Saqibal Hasan caught in the gully by Smith, Bangladesh were in tatters at 82-4.

But when Ashraful and Aftab came together, the result was the sensible partnership the innings was crying out for.

South Africa lost their momentum with Smith and Kallis bowling together and the Tigers' duo looked in little danger of losing their wickets.

Ashraful survived one mis-timed hook off Kallis before quickly learning his lesson, crashing the next ball - another testing bouncer - in front of square on the leg side for four.

Ntini came back and enjoyed immediate success when a disbelieving Aftab - who had just hit two monstrous sixes off Justin Kemp - holed out in the deep to Nel.

But Ashraful continued on his merry way and played his favourite standing sweep over short fine leg, a shot which earned him several crucial boundaries.

Mortaza joined him to smash 25 off 16 balls as the Tigers accelerated their scoring rate in a frenzied last 10 overs.

Ashraful was eventually caught in the deep by Charl Langeveldt off Nel to hand the bowler his first ever five-wicket haul (5-45) in ODIs.