Yesterday, at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, unbelievable events played out as Bangladesh was able to tie the third and final one-day international (ODI) against India.
In order to get India’s last batter, Meghna Singh, out of the game when they needed just one run to win off four deliveries to go over Bangladesh’s 225, the bowler Marufa Akter harnessed her fire passion to get rid of the batter. The ball was securely caught by the captain, Nigar Sultana Joty, and the hosts began a euphoric period of celebration after the play.
During this time, Singh and Jemimah Rodrigues, who were both stuck at the non-striker’s end on 33, were visibly upset about the decision that the umpire had made.
When India’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, was run out by a leg-before judgment earlier, the visitors’ frustration with several decisions made by the umpires reached a boiling point.
After being dismissed, a clearly enraged Kaur used the bat to strike the stumps, and on her way back to the dressing room, she had a few heated words with the umpires.
Even at the award ceremony that took place after the game, Kaur was unable to contain her rage. She attacked the quality of the umpiring in a way that took the relatively tiny audience in Mirpur by surprise. The match was being played in India.
The captain of India was ranting and raving about something. “Lastly, our High Commissioner from India is also there, and I hope you could have invited him here [at the presentation podium], but that’s also fine,” she concluded.
When it came time for the formal picture session, in which both teams were supposed to stand with the trophy, things went from bad to worse. The question “Where are the umpires?” had been screamed out by Kaur. “Give them a call.”
Even her Bangladeshi opponent, Nigar Sultana Joty, received some of the India captain’s venting wrath. “You guys didn’t win, it’s the umpires,” Kaur stated to the other players after the game.
Getting back to the chase, India was in a precarious position with 32 runs for two wickets, but opener Smrity Mandhana (59) and Harleen Deol kept the ship afloat and nearly stole the game from the home team by contributing 107 runs for the third-wicket partnership.
However, the game was turned on its head by two spectacular run-out dismissals, one of which involving Deol, who hit the most number of runs for his side (77), followed by three wickets in the space of five deliveries.
The visitors tied the game and the series, which is a part of the ICC Women’s Championship, after losing their last six wickets for 34 runs, which was a spectacular turnaround from Bangladesh. This allowed them to draw the game and also the series at 1-1.
Earlier, the home team demonstrated why they were right to choose to bat first. After Fargana Hoque Pinky became the first Bangladeshi woman to make a hundred in the fifty-over format, the Tigresses scored their second-highest ODI total of 225 for four. This was the Tigresses’ second-highest ODI total ever.
Pinky and Shamima Sultana put up 93 runs for the first wicket to establish the groundwork for the team’s success before the later batswoman was dismissed after hitting 52 runs off of 78 balls.
Pinky continued to add runs to Bangladesh’s total with the help of Joty (24) and Sobhana Mostary (23 not out), which enabled Bangladesh to record a score that can be considered competitive. She hit seven boundaries on her way to a fantastic 107 runs off of 160 balls before being run out on the penultimate ball of the innings. The total number of balls she faced was 160.