In a bid to make a spot in the semi-finals, Bangladesh Women team strongly on the race after outplaying their Malaysian counterparts by a huge margin of 114 runs in the Women’s Asian Cup cricket on Wednesday.
Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty opting to bat first set a daunting task for Malaysia to chase of 192 runs and restricted them on 77 runs for eight wickets.
Meanwhile, it is the second highest total for Bangladesh women in T20 international tournament, when their previous record was 255 runs against Maldives in the South Asian Games (SA Games) in Pokhara, Nepal in 2019.
In that match two Bangladesh batters slammed a century each with Nigar Sultana Joty (now the captain of the team) scoring 113 runs off 65 balls smashing 14 fours and four sixes when Faragana Haque cracked 110 of 53 balls hitting 20 fours.
After their mammoth 255 runs, Bangladesh set a record with bowling Maldives only for six runs and won the match by249 runs.
The win took Bangladesh to second place on the points table but their qualification depends on how Thailand fare against Sri Lanka later in the day. Bangladesh can make it to the semis if Sri Lanka thrash Thailand.
Thailand can make upset with defeating Sri Lanka, as they’re more than capable of it, having done so in
the past in this very tournament, when they script historic win over Sri L in the Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup 2018 in Kuala Lumpur.
So, if Thailand could repeat an upsetting result then equation would be left for both Bangladesh and Thailand women team to advance to semifinal.
However, taking the bat first, Tigress made an impressive start with the openers Dilalara Akter and Murshida Khatun looked promises to be attacking attitude and scored 51 runs in the first power-play (6 overs). Overs when the partnership set a strong foundation with scoring 65 runs by 7.4 overs.
But Diala Akter, who was more aggressive mood than her opening partner got out after scoring 33 off just 20 balls, featured with four bounderies and one maximum.
One down Nigar Sultana, captain of the Tigress joined the opener Dialara Akter and maintained the momentum of bracing the run rate when Bangladesh reached to 100 (102) runs by 12 overs.
Joty was survived from stumping on 14 with team’s score 102 for one, when she was dragged outside the crease trying to drive beaten in flight, Keeper Lulled missed the stumping chance.
Joty along with Murshida Khatun added 89 runs in 9.2 overs before the former getting our for after scoring team’s highest 80 runs.
Murshida, in her prolific 80 runs innings smashed 10 boundaries and a couple of sixes.
Joty utilized the life-line superbly when she scored unbeaten 62 off 37 balls with five fours and two sixes and helped Bangladesh to score the massive total of 191 for two wickets.
