England, having overcome a frustrating outing in their previous encounter against Sri Lanka that ended up in a wash out steamrolled Bangladesh by seven wickets in a truncated game on Tuesday at St Lucia. By virtue of their win, the England team opened its winning account in the ICC WT20. The English women now top the Group A points table with the home team closing in on them with two points. However, the Carribean women have played only one game in this tournament.
Batting first, the Bangladeshi women, found themselves in a spot of bother, as their top order failed to get them off to a good start. With four of the top six batters getting dismissed without troubling the scorers, the Asian champions found themselves reeling at 53/6. Kirstie Gordon, the debutant made regular inroads into the Bangladesh batting lineup, as she finished with figures of 3/16 in her quota of four overs. Disciplined bowling aided the English to restrict the Bangladesh team to a paltry score of 79/6. Opener Ayasha Rahman was the only player to show some resilience with a steady 39 while only two others managed to reach the double digit figure.
Only the rain was going to prevent a victory for the English. They suffered early setbacks when their in-form opener, Danielle Wyatt was dismissed off the first ball of the England innings with Tammy Beaumont joining her in the dug out soon after. Natalie Sciver and Amy Jones steadied the ship with a cautious 23 and 28 respectively before the weather played spoilsport once again forcing stoppage of play. England managed to score 55/3 off nine overs before they were forced to leave the field giving a possibility of a result.
After a brief spell of rain, the target was revised to 64 in 16 overs. Skipper Heather Knight finished the formalities in just three deliveries.
England with three points in two games will lock horns with the Proteas women followed by a match against the hosts. The English unit will look to win both games to secure a semi final birth comfortably.
Bangladesh on the other hand lie at the bottom of the table and will be hoping to put an end to their losing streak in this WT20.
Scores in brief:
Bangladesh 76/9 in 20 overs (Ayasha Rahman 39, Kirstie Gordon 3-16) lost to England 64/3 in 9.3 overs ( Amy Jones 28*) by 7 wickets.