The Proteas Women got off to an inauspicious start in the chase. Bangladesh seamer Marufa Akter produced some prodigious inswing to beat captain Laura Wolvaardt between bat and pad with the first ball crashing into her off stump.
From there, the South Africans laboured. They chugged along at around six runs per over while losing wickets consistently. Tazmin Brits tried to muscle one over long on but came up short, the Dane van Niekerk was trapped in front after trying a reverse sweep the next over.
South Africa were 63/3 needing a run a ball, with Annerie Dercksen and de Klerk seemingly in control. But they suffered another setback when Dercksen departed for 45 after nicking one behind.
After a few more lean overs, Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk got involved in an awful mix-up which saw the former run out for 16.
The Proteas Women needed ten runs from the last 12 balls and even then they tried to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory, with de Klerk shanking a lofted delivery from Ruti Moni. A fortunate outside edge thne went to the boundary and an ill-timed lofted drive from Chloe Tryon got them over the line, but only just.
Earlier, South African pace attack stifled the Bangladesh batters. Veterans Shabnim Ismail and Kapp bowled almost all their full allotment up front, and it paid off. Kapp got her 100th T20 wicket with the first ball of the match, upending Juairiya Ferdous.
Ismail then got in on the action in the fourth over when she trapped a struggling Taj Nehart in front, leaving them 14/2.
Bangladesh limped along until Nonkululeko Mblaba's two wickets finally brought captain Nigar Sultana to the crease at 77/4. She injected some much-needed impetus to the innings as her sparkling 32 came off just 20 to get them to 117/5.
Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt has expressed her excitement at the opportunity to face a fellow African opponent for the first time when they take on Zimbabwe in a five-match T20I series in Bulawayo starting on Friday.
Mitchell Starc led Australia to an innings and 51-run win over Bangladesh to tie up the Test series at 1-1 in Darwin on Saturday.
Bangladesh recovered from a disastrous start to fight back against Australia on a remarkable opening day of the second Test in Mackay in which 18 wickets tumbled.
Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons has warned his team that Australia will "come harder at us' in the second Test after the Asian team shocked the cricketing world by winning the series opener.
