Bangladesh Women created history as they bagged their first-ever win in the ICC Women World Cup history after beating Pakistan by nine runs at the Seddon Park, Hamilton on Monday.
The team’s captain Nigar Sultana was delighted after her team’s memorable win and feels this is a historic moment for them.
Bangladesh posted a fighting score of 234 runs after Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl first. Fargana Hoque scored a fine knock of 71 runs for Bangladesh whereas Nigar Sultana contributed with 46 runs. Bangladesh opener Sharmin Akhter also played a good knock of 44 runs.
Nigar Sultana said after the game, “I think I can’t describe the feeling. This is a historic moment. I thought the spinners will dominate here. We know Pakistan really well. We beat them in the qualifier as well. The girls have put in the hard work. A win gives you a lot of confidence. We are improving and we know we are a capable team.”
On the other hand, Pakistan was cruising to the total as they were 182-2 at one stage but they crumbled like a pack of cards and they could only manage 225-9 on the board in the end. Thus, they veered off the track as they lost seven wickets for 43 runs in the end.
Fahima Khatun played a key role for Bangladesh in Pakistan’s skid. She returned with three wickets and conceded 38 runs in her eight overs. Khatun struck off consecutive deliveries in the 43rd over as she removed Aliya Riaz and Fatima Sana. Furthermore, Bangladesh was able to run out Sidra Nawaz in the same over. Khatun had also accounted for Omaima Sohail earlier in the innings.
Khatun added that the team didn’t panic despite not picking wickets early in their bowling innings as they were able to keep the required run-rate on the higher side.
”We did not panic just because we could not pick wickets. We were able to put them under pressure by stopping them from scoring at the required run rates,” Fahima told reporters after their historical win. ‘
‘We were unfortunate that we missed a couple of catches and run-outs but we bowled really well at the end. ”We have defeated them a couple of times in the recent past, so we were confident about winning against them.”
”I am happy to repay the faith of my team management, seniors and captain,” she said. “I just wanted to bowl in the right areas and not look for wickets because I knew if they fail to score runs they will give us wickets. We just have to play our normal cricket and see what happens. We just wanted to make this World Cup memorable for us.”
Bangladesh Women will next face West Indies at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui on Friday.
