If South Africa wanted excuses for being bowled out for under 250 they could have found a few.
They could have blamed it on their new opening pair who are still adjusting to each other. They could have blamed it on their absent anchor, AB de Villiers, who is at home for the arrival of his first child. They could have blamed it on their out-of-form captain - Hashim Amla has not scored a half-century in eight innings - though no-one would dare do that. They could have blamed it on their even more out-of-form No.6: Quinton de Kock has gone six innings without a half-century, his last two scores have been in single figures, and this time he made a duck. They could have pointed fingers at all four of those things and found that collectively they formed a large handful of problems, but they didn't.
"We've got to say it: it wasn't our best day. We were on top at lunch. To be bundled out for 250 was not our best," Temba Bavuma, the only South African to reach fifty, said, offering not an excuse, but an explanation for the manner in which his team folded. "When we had the opportunity to get a bit of momentum, we lost it. Mentally we were a bit weak at times."
South Africa held the advantage after the first session, in which they scored 104 and were relatively untroubled by a Bangladesh attack that was disciplined without being overly dangerous. If there was a time to press home their position, it would have been immediately after that.
Instead, Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis embarked on a go-slow reminiscent of the Perth 2012 or Colombo 2014 blockathons, but without the same reasoning. On those occasions, South Africa's dead-batting had the purpose of trying to save a match and both times, they succeeded. But today, there was no reason to buy time and doing it actually cost South Africa.
As much as Bangladesh kept South Africa quiet, Elgar and du Plessis allowed themselves to be silenced. Mohammad Shahid's six-over spell after lunch was not scored off, but not because South Africa were scared. He bowled a line outside off which did not force them to play, so they didn't. On the occasions that they did, it was in defence, not attack. If South Africa got it wrong somewhere, that was where. They treated Shahid and Jubair Hossain with deference when they could have been more positive against them to avoid getting stuck the way they did.
Elgar and du Plessis frustrated themselves out, which put pressure on a middle order that also had to contend with an aging ball and an increasingly confident opposition. "As the ball got older and softer it got harder to pierce the gaps," Bavuma said. "They didn't give us many freebies." And then, Mustafizur Rahman broke the back of the South African resistance with his three strikes in the same over. Bavuma, who watched it unfold, could feel the game move into Bangladesh's control.
"From then, they just kept on nailing it down on us. We weren't able to recover from that," he said. "That spell was world-class."
Bavuma stayed with the tail and ensured South Africa edged over 200, but his performance may become lost in the analysis of where it all went wrong. It should not, because Bavuma may have provided the blueprint for the approach that must be taken by both sets of batsmen as the match unfolds.
Even if it becomes difficult to score, and Bavuma expects it will because "the wicket will get slower," batsmen should guard against getting bogged down and remain positive in their approach. Bavuma did that and was rewarded with his first Test fifty in just his second game."
"It's always nice to make a contribution and with this being my first meaningful contribution to the team, it meant a bit more. It gave me confidence that I can play at this level," he said. He has also given South Africa's selectors no excuses not to consider making room for him somewhere in the middle order even when de Villiers returns.