DHAKA, Nov 18, 2018 (BSS)- Bangladesh women’s cricket team aim to restore some lost pride as they face South Africa in their group A last encounter of the Women’s World T20I scheduled to be held tomorrow (Monday) at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium at Gros Islet, St Lucia.
Bangladesh, one of the two teams (Bangladesh, Ireland), that had to take the qualifier route to the World T20. Therefore, losing to the West Indies, England and Sri Lanka was not totally unexpected.
But these are the same players who recently beat India twice to win the Asia Cup. Keeping that in mind, it’s a bit disappointing. It’s a team with a bunch of excellent spinners, who were expected to do well in favourable condition in the West Indies. They didn’t do badly, nor did medium pacer Jahanara Alam but the batting just failed to click.
“Don’t lose hope on us, please keep faith on us,” Alam said almost directly addressing the team’s fans after the loss to Sri Lanka. The team has come up in leaps and bounds, but to build on the progress, the team’s batters must do better than they have so far – 46 against the Windies, 76/9 against England and 72 against Sri Lanka.
In their last World T20 game, they come up against an opposition that’s on the same side of the fence – South Africa have scored 102/3 in 18.3 overs against Sri Lanka and were bowled out for 76 and 85 by the Windies and England respectively. It’s another team that has just failed to get going with the bat.
When it comes to the South Africans, the performance is even more dispiriting because they are up in the top few teams in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings and have in their midst star batters like Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Dane van Niekerk, Mignon du Preez and Chloe Tryon. But cometh the hour, they have faltered big time.
“We still have another game tomorrow and we need to keep our heads up and be positive for that one,” said all-rounder Sune Luus in the lead-up to the game against Bangladesh. That’s really all they can do at the far end of another campaign that could have gone so differently.
SQUADS:
Bangladesh: Salma Khatun (captain), Ayasha Rahman, Fahima Khatun, Fargana Hoque Pinky, Jahanara Alam, Khadiza Tul Kubra, Lata Mondol, Nahida Akter, Nigar Sultana Joty, Panna Ghosh, Ritu Moni, Rumana Ahmed, , Sanjida Islam, Shamima Sultana and Sharmin Akhter Supta
South Africa: Dane Van Niekerk (c), Mignon du Preez, Shabnim Ismail, Marizanne Kapp, Masabata Klaas, Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus, Zintle Mali, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Robyn Searle, Tumi Sekhukhune, Saarah Smith, Faye Tunnicliffe, Chloe Tryon and Laura Wolvaardt.