Bangladesh players celebrated their historic first ODI win yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
It was the first game of a three-game series. Picture: BCB
Bangladesh’s women’s team shocked visiting India by beating them by 40 runs (via DLS) in the first ODI at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday. This was all thanks to pacer Marufa Akter.
Even though it was a big deal that they beat India for the first time in an ODI, the Tigresses will work hard to fix their hitting after another poor performance.
Even though the T20Is were low-scoring, the ODI series in Mirpur was the same. But after Bangladesh scored only 152 runs in a game that was cut short by rain and shortened to 44 overs per side, Marufa got bounce and movement to get rid of star batter Smriti Mandhana and other starter Priya Puniya.
Then, in the middle overs, Marufa would come back and take two wickets in a row, leaving India stunned. Rabeya Khan took three wickets as well.
After 35.5 overs, the guests were bowled out for 113 runs, and the Tigresses kept winning after winning the last T20I on Friday.
“We used the energy we got from winning the T20I series, but I’m still worried about the hitting. The captain, Nigar Sultana Joty, told the press after the game, “I don’t think we lost wickets because of very good deliveries.”
Before it started to rain, the Tigresses were getting off to a slow start. Fargana Hoque (27) and Joty (39), after the rain break, put together a 49-run stand. But the second one said that a bigger team was needed.
“If we had a bigger partnership, we could have gotten to 200 since we had the chance, but the girls bowled great,” said Joty.
“Everything we do will be recorded in history. It took a long time for the team to beat India. Of course, it’s part of history, but we’ll try to add to that past,” she said.
After Shorna Akter left the game because he was hurt, Sultana Khatun and Fahim Khatun put on 26 important runs for the eighth wicket.
After that, Marufa made India shake. Hashan Tillakaratne, the head coach, thought it would be a good idea to bring on Marufa in the middle overs. This meant that Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur could no longer work together to score 30 runs, which was very important.
“Right now, she is one of the best players in the world. Also, the hitters did a great job with the spins. So, we wanted to keep up the pace. “That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to bowl Marufa,” Tillakaratne said.
Even though the defense was great, the head coach, like Joty, pointed out that there was room for better.
“The ground was very good. Unfortunately, our hitters didn’t do their jobs, and we were 50–60 runs short. “I think we need to tie up a few loose ends before the second one,” he said.