Bangladesh took full advantage of a complacent India as it recorded a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the Women’s Asia Cup T20 competition at the Kinrara Academy Oval on Wednesday.
The win is a historic one as this is the first time that Bangladesh women have defeated India in an international game across any format.
After two facile wins over Thailand and Malaysia, India put up a below-par batting performance, scoring 141 for seven, which Bangladesh surpassed in 19.4 overs.
India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have all got four points from three games but the ‘Women In Blue’ are leading the standings with a net run-rate of +3.428.
Fargana Hoque (52 not out off 46 balls) and Rumana Ahmed (42 not out off 34 balls) added 93 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket to guide the Bangladeshi women to one of their bigger victories in international cricket.
'Very happy'
Rumana was the Player of the Match for her all-round effort as she picked up 3 for 21 in 4 overs to engineer a middle-order slump when India batted.
“I am very happy for the girls. They have achieved something which will help them for the rest of their lives,” Bangladesh manager Nazmul Abedeen said.
It was the batting that let India down with only skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (42 off 37 balls) making a significant contribution.
Read: Afghanistan serves big teams a notice
Along with Deepti Sharma (32 off 28 balls), the skipper added 50 runs for the fourth wicket, but it didn’t come at a fair clip. The duo consumed seven overs to score the runs.
Once both were dismissed in quick succession, the last four overs saw India scoring only 22 runs, which enabled Bangladesh to make a match of it.
It was leg-spinner Rumana, who was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers, removing Harmanpreet, Deepti and Anuja Patil, who is known to strike a few lusty blows.
Chasing, the winners were in trouble at 49 for 3 after 8 overs before Fargana and Rumana calmly completed the task. Fargana hit five boundaries and a six while Rumana hit six boundaries in her knock.
Needing 32 off the last four overs, Fargana hit left-arm spinner Rajeswari Gayakwad for 12 runs in the 17th over with a couple of boundaries. Rumana, in the next over, hit Jhulan Goswami for 10 runs to bring the equation down to 10 in two overs.
Needing four off the last over, the duo coolly ran four singles, including leg-byes, to finish the match in style.
India will now take on Sri Lanka at the Royal Selangor Club ground on Thursday.
Comments
SHARE