South Africa's timid approach cost them the ODI series

Since 2018, South Africa have won just two ODI series in five at home against subcontinental opponents. One came against Sri Lanka and the other against Pakistan. They lost three on that journey, one each to India, Pakistan, and now Bangladesh.

This defeat is definitely going to hurt them a lot. For a team coming on the back of a five-series unbeaten run across formats, this was tough to digest. Against an opponent who has never registered a single ODI victory on South African soil, losing two out of three one-dayers is a major setback for Temba Bavuma's men.

While batting let them down enormously in the decider, the collapse was pretty much on the cards given how the series went.

South Africa's perennial struggle comes back to haunt them

After the recent ODI series against India, it seemed to many that South Africa had overcome their mental block against tackling spin. The way the middle order of Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen played the Indian spinners in crunch moments of the series, it seemed for all their money that the South African batting order was very capable of tackling the Tigers' finger spinners.

However, it proved to be otherwise.

Chasing an enormous score in the first one-dayer, South Africa opted for a safe-first approach to keeping wickets intact. Despite losing fewer wickets in the powerplay, they barely managed to control the required run rate. As soon as the spinners were introduced, they started losing momentum and found themselves four down with just over a hundred runs scored.

Despite a brilliant partnership between van der Dussen and Miller, as expected, they fell quite short of the target. The Bullring comeback was inspired by Quinton de Kock, who displayed the aggressive component that the Proteas missed during the first one-dayer in his absence.

However, in the decider, they faltered yet again.

A conservative approach up front allowed the inexperienced Bangladeshi pace battery to get on top of things. Losing wickets up front put enormous pressure on their middle order. Showing no intent whatsoever, the middle order faltered as well to leave the team reeling at 83 for five. On a good Centurion wicket, the match was essentially done and dusted; the rest was a formality that Bangladesh completed in no time.

While Taskin Ahmed was adjudged the Man of the Series for his eight wickets, it was essentially South Africa's conservative batting game that kept Bangladesh in these contests. With as many as six players opting for the IPL, the Proteas will have to guard against losing the Test series as well.