After losing the first Test on the back of a miserable batting display in their second innings in Durban, Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque said they were abused by their South African counterparts on the field. He however did not disclose the terms of abuse. In the final innings of the Test, Bangladesh needed 274 runs to win the match or bat for just over a day to save the match. But the visitors lasted just 19 overs.   Bangladesh tumbled for 53 in 19 overs, their second-lowest total in Tests, and lost the match by 220 runs. Keshav Maharaj, the left-arm spinner of the hosts, scalped seven wickets in the last innings of the match.  READ: Durban Test: Tigers fold inside an hour on day 5 “Sledging is common in the cricket field. We don't mind if somebody sledges us, but what they did in this Test was abusive. The umpires did not notice the abuse,” Mominul said in the post-match conference.  Mominul did not disclose what actually South African cricketers told them or what they have done with them.  “We cannot share those things, and we did not lodge any complaint to the match-referee. One thing I can say is that the ICC should bring neutral umpires in Tests. As the Covid-19 situation improved, I think the tradition of deploying neutral umpires in Tests should be back on the field,” the Bangladesh captain added.  Adrian Holdstock and Marais Erasmus were the umpires of this match. Both are South African.  Bangladesh were charged up ahead of the Test series as they won the ODI series right before this series. It was the first time that Bangladesh won an ODI and an ODI series on the soil of South Africa. 

A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province, Health Minister Joe Phaahla announced Thursday. The coronavirus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time. South Africa has seen a dramatic rise in new infections, Phaahla said at an online press briefing. “Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise,” he said, adding that the new variant appears to be driving the spike in cases. Scientists in South Africa are working to determine what percentage of the new cases have been caused by the new variant. Currently identified as B.1.1.529, the new variant has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from South Africa, he said. Also read: Can new variants of the coronavirus keep emerging? The World Health Organization's technical working group is to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether or not to give it a name from the Greek alphabet. The British government announced that it was banning flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries effective at noon (1200GMT) on Friday, and that anyone who had recently arrived from those countries would be asked to take a coronavirus test. U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there were concerns the new variant “may be more transmissible” than the dominant delta strain, and “the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective" against it. The new variant has a “constellation” of new mutations, said Tulio de Oliveira, from the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, who has tracked the spread of the delta variant in the country. The "very high number of mutations is a concern for predicted immune evasion and transmissibility,” said de Oliveira. “This new variant has many, many more mutations," including more than 30 to the spike protein that affects transmissibility, he said. "We can see that the variant is potentially spreading very fast. We do expect to start seeing pressure in the healthcare system in the next few days and weeks.” De Oliveira said that a team of scientists from seven South African universities is studying the variant. They have 100 whole genomes of it and expect to have many more in the next few days, he said. “We are concerned by the jump in evolution in this variant," he said. The one piece of good news is that it can be detected by a PCR test, he said. After a period of relatively low transmission in which South Africa recorded just over 200 new confirmed cases per day, in the past week the daily new cases rapidly increased to more than 1,200 on Wednesday. On Thursday they jumped to 2,465. Also read: Global Covid cases approaching 207 mln as concerns mount over Delta variant The first surge was in Pretoria and the surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area and appeared to be cluster outbreaks from student gatherings at universities in the area, said health minister Phaahla. Amid the rise in cases, scientists studied the genomic sequencing and discovered the new variant. “This is clearly a variant that we must be very serious about,” said Ravindra Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge. “It has a high number of spike mutations that could affect transmissibility and immune response.” Gupta said scientists in South Africa need time to determine if the surge in new cases is attributable to the new variant. “There is a high probability that this is the case," he said. “South African scientists have done an incredible job of identifying this quickly and bringing it to the world's attention.” South African officials had warned that a new resurgence was expected from mid-December to early January and had hoped to prepare for that by getting many more people vaccinated, said Phaahla. About 41% of South Africa's adults have been vaccinated and the number of shots being given per day is relatively low, at less than 130,000, significantly below the government's target of 300,000 per day. South Africa currently has about 16.5 million doses of vaccines, by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, in the country and is expecting delivery of about 2.5 million more in the next week, according to Nicholas Crisp, acting director-general of the national health department. “We are getting in vaccines faster than we are using them at the moment,” said Crisp. “So for some time now, we have been deferring deliveries, not decreasing orders, but just deferring our deliveries so that we don’t accumulate and stockpile vaccines.” South Africa, with a population of 60 million, has recorded more than 2.9 million COVID-19 cases including more than 89,000 deaths. To date, the delta variant remains by far the most infectious and has crowded out other once-worrying variants including alpha, beta and mu. According to sequences submitted by countries worldwide to the world’s biggest public database, more than 99% are delta.

South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker was the star of the day, setting the first individual swimming world record at the Tokyo Olympics. Others shined, too. Evgeny Rylov completed a backstroke double for Russia, Emma McKeon gave the Aussie women another gold, and China earned a return trip to the top of the medal podium. The mighty Americans? For the first time in the meet, they spent the entire session Friday watching others win gold. Schoenmaker, a 24-year-old South African, won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona. It was the third world record at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the first two coming in women’s relays. “I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Schoenmaker, who added to her silver in the 100 breast. ”It couldn’t have been a better race. It still just doesn’t sink in, maybe one day.” Rylov thoroughly snuffed out America’s dominance in the backstroke, adding the 200 title to his victory in the 100 back. Rylov won with an Olympic-record time of 1:53.29, while American Ryan Murphy wound up with the silver (1:54.15). Also read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics Murphy was a double-gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he extended an American winning streak that began at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The U.S. won 12 straight men’s backstroke events over six Olympics, but that streak ended with Rylov’s victory in the 100. He made it 2-for-2 in the longer race, while Murphy settled for bronze and silver in the two events. Britain’s Luke Greenbank grabbed the 200 bronze in 1:54.72. McKeon touched first in the 100 freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 51.96, becoming only the second woman to break 52 seconds in the sprint. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey earned the silver in 52.27, while another Aussie, Cate Campbell, took the bronze in 52.52. American Abbey Weitzeil was last in the eight-woman field. The Australians have won four individual women’s events at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, in addition to setting a world record in a 4x100 free relay that included both McKeon and Campbell. The team from Down Under has six golds overall, tied with the Americans, though the U.S. has the lead in the overall medal count. The Americans won three medals Friday, also claiming the other two spots on the podium behind Schoenmaker. But it was the first time the U.S. team went through an entire sessions of finals in Tokyo without winning at least one gold. Lilly King set a blistering pace early in the 200 breast and held on for a silver in 2:19.92, adding to her bronze in the 100 event. Annie Lazor nabbed the bronze in 2:20.84. “I don’t come from behind, that’s for sure, so I just wanted to put it out there and see where it goes,” King said. “I thought I did great.” A day after winning its first two golds at the pool, China picked up another victory when Wang Shun touched first in the men’s 200 individual medley. Wang edged Britain’s Duncan Scott with a time of 1:55.00. Scott took the silver in 1:55.28, while the bronze went to Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches in 1:56.17. Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal It was another disappointment for hometown star Daiya Seto, who didn’t even qualify for the final of his first two events. He got through in the 200 IM, but just missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish -- a mere five-hundredths of a second behind the Swiss bronze medalist. American Michael Andrew led after the third leg, powering to the top spot on the breaststroke. But he faded badly on the freestyle to wind up in fifth, more than 2 seconds behind the winner. “I think it hurt worse than it looked, and it looked pretty bad,” Andrew said. “I knew I had to be fast at the 150 and I was praying for some Holy Spirit power to get me home in that (final) 50, but it wasn’t all there.” But the U.S. has several good chances to claim gold over the last two days of the swimming competition. Caeleb Dressel has two individual finals remaining, and Katie Ledecky is a big favorite in the 800 free. Dressel set another Olympic record in the semifinals of the 100 butterfly. Minutes after Hungary’s Kristof Milak took down the mark in the first semifinal heat, Dressel went even faster with a time of 49.71 in the second heat. “I feel fine,” Dressel said. “I’m not worried about the schedule. I’ve had it written down for a couple weeks now. I know what’s coming. I know how to pace it correctly. I know how to take care of my body.” It was the third-fastest time in history and left Milak as the second-fastest qualifier at 50.31. In the preliminaries, Dressel tied the former Olympic record of 50.39 set by Singapore’s Joseph Schooling to win gold at the 2016 Rio Games. Dressel will be a big favorite in Saturday morning’s final, though he could get pushed by Milak. The Hungarian already won the 200 fly with a dominating victory.   Dressel picked up the first individual gold medal of his career with a win in the 100 freestyle.