Home ›› 11 Oct 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh national women’s team suffered an inexplicable defeat in the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 in Sylhet on Monday as they failed to chase down 41 runs in seven overs against Sri Lanka, leaving their hopes of defending their title in doubt.
Batting first, the Sri Lankans managed 83-5 in 18.1 overs before the rain started pouring, leading to their innings ending there.
Bangladesh were set a target of 41 runs in seven overs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, and chasing it down would mean Bangladesh having a safe passage to the semi-finals.
But Bangladesh failed as their batters could not score run-a-ball, and some bizarre shot selection only made it impossible as they fell three runs short.
“This is disappointing for us. Today’s match was very important for us. We all feel very disappointed. We are all upset,” a baffled Bangladesh all-rounder Jahanara Alam, who picked up her 100th international wicket on the day, said after the match.
“We have practised a lot (regarding chasing small totals) and our batters have improved. They do well consistently. In the matches we lose, everything goes wrong. There’s no fault in our training. It was an easy target for us, considering our level. But it’s really disappointing,” she added.
Bangladesh now sit fifth in the points table with four points from two wins, behind India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
Bangladesh will face UAE today, and a win there will ensure their semi-final berth as they have a better net run-rate than Thailand.
Despite still having their semi-final fate in their own hands, Bangladesh were disappointing on Monday.
Chasing 41, they failed to eke out singles on a regular basis and hit only one boundary in their 42 deliveries. But the most astounding matter was the manner the batters got out in the last two overs when they needed 14.
Sri Lanka armed their leg-side field heavily, meaning a boundary on that side was difficult to manage. But yet, the Bangladesh batters kept trying to clear the ropes in that direction and failed in an obvious manner. Skipper Nigar Sultana Joty, Rumana Ahmed, and Sobhana Mostary- all three of them were caught at deep mid-wicket, resulting in three dot balls, where three singles would have been enough for them.
Jahanara pointed it out after the match, “Our plan was to play run-a-ball. We will take the game deep, and take our chances in the last three overs. If we managed to take singles regularly, it would have been easier for us.”
But the all-rounder also mentioned that the wicket got trickier after it rained as there was variable bounce and the Sri Lankan spinners got the ball to skid.
“The wicket is a fact. After the rain, the balls started to get low. We opted for fielding because we thought after the initial help from the wicket, we would be batting in an easier one when the sun shines. After the rain, we noticed that the ball wasn’t bouncing at all.
“Sri Lankan bowlers generally bowl with low bounce, and the rain allowed them to skid their deliveries. But still, it shouldn’t be the fault of the wicket. It was a run-a-ball target. It should have been chased down easily. But it was not in our fate,” she said in the post-match press conference.
Considering that Bangladesh are the defending Champions of the tournament, their performance so far has been subpar at best as they have been bested by all of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Jahanara said that this happened because they did not have matches regularly, which they will get following their inclusion in the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Programme (FTP).
“There is always room for improvement. As we are now under the FTP, we will get a lot of matches. We will only understand our ability if we play more. You can’t judge when we play a match or tournament once in a while,” she told the media.
