Sports desk //

Bangladesh team lost by 33 runs in the warm-up match against Sri Lanka at the ICC Academy ground in Dubai yesterday before the start of Women’s T20 World Cup. Niger Sultana’s team won by 23 runs against Pakistan at the same venue today. Bangladesh has done better than the Sri Lanka match in both the batting and bowling categories.

Chasing Sri Lanka’s 143 runs for 7 wickets, Bangladesh stopped at 110 runs for 9 wickets after playing the entire 20 overs. After winning the toss in this match, the Niger team went into bat. But today after winning the toss and batting first, Bangladesh scored 140 runs for 7 wickets after playing the entire 20 overs. Chasing down, Pakistan girls were all out for 117 runs in 18.4 overs. Marufa Akhtar, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan and Swarna Akhtar took 2 wickets each for Bangladesh.

No one has scored a fifty in batting for Bangladesh. Swarna was unbeaten with the highest score of 28 runs. 23 runs came from opener Sathi Rani’s bat. Nigar (18), Taj (17), Sobhana (15), Ritu (14) and Dilara (10) played double digit innings respectively. Only Taj, Nigar and Disha managed to reach double figures in the previous match against Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh captain Nigar did not use seven bowlers against Sri Lanka today. He used five bowlers to spread pressure on Pakistan’s innings. Pakistan lost 4 wickets for 63 runs in the 12th over. After that, Pakistan’s batsmen could not cope with the regular fall of wickets and the pressure of run rate. The maximum 33 runs came from Omaima Sohail’s bat.

After one loss and one win in the warm-up matches, Bangladesh girls are now waiting to take the field in the final phase of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup. The Niggers’ first match in the finals is against Scotland on 3 October. That is the opening match of this season. Bangladesh have four opponents in Group B – Scotland, England, South Africa and West Indies.