Spinners Eddie Leie and Aaron Phangiso seal T20 series for South Africa

But Bangaladesh were not up to the task and collapsed inside 18.5 overs.

Shakib alHasan was the only batsman to offer some kind of resistance with 26 off 30 balls while debutante Litton Das made 22 off 33.

Faf du Plessis was adjudged the Man of the match for his contribution with the bat.

The tourists played with four seamers in their attack that included two spinners in contrast to Bangladesh’s five.

Quinton De Kock and AB Deviliers came out to bat and went off to a flyer, scoring 93 runs in the first 10 overs.

Mashrafe praised the 46-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar that saw them off to a decent start in their chase of South Africa’s 169/4. Bangladesh was eventually bowled out for a sub-100 score, with each of South Africa’s six bowlers among the wickets.

Sunday’s clash in Mirpur will be the first time they have played since their one-day global World Cup semi-final heartache against hosts New Zealand in March, the last of the test-playing nations to get back to the wicket.

“Sunny has opened bowling many times before so I planned to start with him”.

Later down the innings, two cameos from “Killer” Miller and Rossouw helped South Africa to post a good score on the board to defend.

After the opening partnership, South Africa wobbled losing three wickets for seven runs but David Miller (30) and Rilee Rossouw (19) remained unbeaten after adding 33 runs in 14 balls to prop up the innings. Kyle Abbott was particularly impressive and his skill at the death, specifically his ability to bowl yorkers, has been a breath of fresh air after an era of slower bouncers that so dominated the bowling arsenal of South Africa.

Heading into Tuesday’s second of two T20Is, Du Plessis’ team-mate Rilee Rossouw hailed the skipper’s performance in Dhaka.

“It is important not to concentrate too much on the batsmen”, said Sunny. Then came the turn of India and in a three-match ODI series Bangladesh walked away with a 2-1 victory. He top scored with a 31 ball 44.

Defending the total, the South African spinners got more purchase from the wicket and did not allow any partnership to prosper, frustrating the hosts who were hoping to replicate their limited-overs form having beaten Pakistan and India in recent home series.

“I think our game plan for the bowlers is to be aggressive against the Bangladesh batsmen”.