Bangladesh Women’s national cricket team skipper Nigar Sultana Joty was nominated for ICC’s player of the match award for the month of September following her team’s triumph in the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup Qualifiers.
Nigar led from the front as the women in red and green became the unbeaten champions of the tournament in UAE last month that guaranteed Bangladesh a spot in the group stage of the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Captaining her team to the championship, the right-handed batter had 180 runs at an average of 45 across five T20Is. The wicket-keeper batsman opened her account with a crucial score of 67 in her side’s first outing – a victory over eventual finalists Ireland, before registering an unbeaten 56 against the USA en route to clinching a spot in South Africa.
With this nomination, Nigar becomes the first Bangladeshi Women’s international to get shortlisted since November 2021, when her compatriot Nahida Akhter was nominated.
The 25-year-old is leading her team in the ongoing Asia Cup in Bangladesh. The women in red and green won the first match against Thailand in Sylhet, where Nigar scored an unbeaten 10 runs to take her team home, and in the second the batter scored a consolation 17-run knock as they were beaten by Pakistan.
