Dhaka — In the second game of the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup, Bangladesh Women’s team suffered a big defeat by 86 runs against the hosts and defending champions Australia at Perth on Thursday.
Australia won on the toss in today’s game and opted to bat first. They posted 189 for one in 20 overs, the highest total of the event so far. Bangladeshi bowlers were clueless to prevent the hosts’ batters from scoring runs.
Openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney posted 151 runs in the first wicket stand. While Alyssa scored 83 off 53 balls with 10 fours and three sixes and fell prey to Salma Khatun, Beth scored 81 off 58 with nine fours and remained unbeaten. Ashleigh Gardner was the only other batter who has batted in this game for Australia and scored 22 unbeaten off nine balls with three fours and one six.
All of the Bangladeshi bowlers were expensive in this game. Rumana Ahmed, who returned with the most economical figures, conceded as much as 7.50 runs per overs. Khadija Tul Kubra and Jahanara Alam were the most expensive bowlers. While Khadija conceded 29 runs in just two overs, Jahanara gave away 40 runs in her four overs.
In reply, Bangladesh tumbled for 103 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs with the highest score of 36 by Fargana Haque. The other batatters were failed to cope up with the wicket of Perth and subsequently endured a disappointing defeat.
Apart from Fargana, Shamima Sultana (13), Nigar Sultana (19) and Rumana Ahmed (13) were the only other three batters to have reached two-digit scores, but their efforts were not enough to avoid a defeat.
Right-arm pacer Megan Schutt scalped three wickets conceding 21 runs in four overs while the left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen took two wickets conceding 17 runs in four overs.
Bangladesh suffered the same fate in the first game when they lost to India by 18 runs. The Tigress will take on New Zealand and Sri Lanka on February 29 and March 2 respectively. If they fail to win these two games, they will have to play a qualifying round to play the next edition of Women’s T20 World Cup.UNB
