Bangladesh ease into Super 6

Bangladesh Under-19 National Women’s Team found yet another dominating display on Monday to ensure their place in the Super 6 of the ongoing first edition of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup as they beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs to make it two wins out of two matches.

Bangladesh currently sit on top of group A, ahead of both Australia and Sri Lanka, whom they beat. Their remaining match will be against USA on Wednesday.

After their brilliant win against Australia in the opening game, Bangladesh were ruthless again on Monday as they came out with incredible intent against Sri Lanka, which led them to putting on a big score of 165-2 on board, before defending it with comparative ease.

Player of the match, Afia Prottasha, who showed glimpses of her power-hitting brilliance against Australia, set the tone as she smashed five fours and three fours to grab her first fifty of the tournament and scored 53 off 43 balls.

Courtesy of her brilliance, Bangladesh raced to 52-0 after the powerplay, meaning they had a solid base to flourish further on. And despite losing Prottasha and Misty Shaha, the other opener who scored 14 off 24 balls, in the same over, Bangladesh managed to put on a strong total courtesy of the two Akters, Dilara and Shorna.

The duo continued on the tone that Prottasha set early as they put together 86 runs off just 51 balls, with Shorna achieving a much-deserved fifty in the final ball of the innings.

Among the two batters, Shorna was the bigger aggressor as she scored 50 off just 28 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes. Her partner at the other end, Dilara - the player of the match from the last match – stayed unbeaten on 36 off 27 balls, hitting three fours and a six.

In reply, Bangladesh bowlers rattled Sri Lanka early as their premier pacer Marufa Akter sent Lankan opener Nethmi Senarathna in the first over, before skipper Disha Biswas removed the other opener, Sumudu Nisansala.

But from there, Sri Lanka skipper Vishmi Gunaratne put together a 96-run stand Dewmi Vihanga for the third wicket, with both batters picking up their fifties and threatening to take the game away from Bangladesh.

The partnership was blooming and at one point, they had reduced the required to 46 runs off the last four overs.

But in came Marufa, and gave away just four runs in the 17th over, along with picking up the crucial wicket of Vihanga, who scored 55, to make sure the match did not slip out of their hands.

The rest was easy for Bangladesh as Sri Lanka could not continue on their quick scoring afterwards, meaning even with three fours in the final three balls of their innings, they could only manage to reduce the deficit to 10 runs.

A win against USA will confirm Bangladesh’s position as the group Champions, a position they are currently on the path of achieving with four points and a healthy net run rate.

If Bangladesh end the group stage as table toppers, they will be in group 1 of the Super 6 stage.