Bangladesh managed to tie the third and final ODI against India, to end the series at a scoreline of 1-1. Bangladesh crushed India in the 1st ODI resulting in a win by 40 runs. This win was the first time Bangladesh defeated India in a women’s ODI match. Whereas in the second ODI India breezed past Bangladesh quite comprehensively to mark a victory by 108 runs. The 3rd ODI resulted in a tie as Bangladesh managed to stage a stellar comeback as India were cruising towards a victory at one point.
Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty is quite happy with the outcome of the series. Showcasing good performances against a top team is a positive thing for them.
She said that “We are quite happy with the overall outcome, We would have been really happy had we won the series. I feel we have taken a respectable step forward. Many people [at home] didn’t know who plays in the Bangladesh team. Now people will recognise who is Nahida [Akter], who is [Fargana Hoque] Pinky, who is Marufa [Akter]. I think this itself is an achievement. It was nice of the cricket board to say positive things about us too. They came to see our matches. The crowd supported us. The media is promoting us.”
She also felt that the bowlers could have done a bit better in the third ODI, the game was there to be won with some good and disciplined bowling.
She said, “I think we could have won the game had we bowled better, It wouldn’t have come this far then. We came back well after a poor powerplay with the ball. I think we overcame some of the mistakes from the second game. We should have closed this series in the second game itself. There’s a lot of lessons from this series that we can use in the future.”
🗨️ "Bring the umpires too"
Nigar Sultana was unhappy with the remarks and took her players back to the dressing room.#BANvIND #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/PZNoZEei1w
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) July 23, 2023
She also said that the team is going into the break with some positive feelings, something which will motivate them in the future too.
Nigar Sultana Joty scored a total of 66 runs from 3 innings at an average of 22. She was also exceptional behind the stumps.
In the past year, the performance of the Bangladesh team has been quite inconsistent, with lots of massive losses and few underdog victories for them. The Sri Lanka series was disappointing for them as they lost both the limited-over series.
They did manage to win a T20I against the Lankans. The 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup was also disappointing for them as they failed to win a single game, in the 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup Bangladesh did manage to win a match against Asian rivals Pakistan, but again that was the only win for them in that campaign.
Captain Nigar Sultana Joty said this in the press conference when asked about Harmanpreet Kaur's behaviour 👇 #CricketTwitter #BANvIND pic.twitter.com/TjtXtrkuEE
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) July 23, 2023
The tour to New Zealand was also disappointing for them as they again failed to register a single win in the series.
The Bangladesh players have improved in the past few months, it is something they would hope to carry all along.
There were lots of positives such as Fargana Hoque’s century, and Marufa Akter and Nahida Akter’s bowling, to take from for the Bangladesh team for their upcoming matches. The team would also hope they get some consistency in the performances and win a few more games, more importantly, the upcoming Asian Games.
(Quotes sourced from ESPN Cricinfo)
