Despite captain Nigar Sultana Joty’s contribution with the bat, Bangladesh sat outclassed and overmatched to face the defeat against Australia by 8 wickets and 10 balls remaining in the ICC T20 World Cup 2023. Georgia Wareham, for her breath-taking spell of 3 for 20 won her the Player of the Match.
With some changes on both sides, Jahanara Alam sitting out along with Lata Mondal, and Fahima Khatun and Rumana Ahmed taking their places for Bangladesh; while on the other hand, Georgia Wareham comes into the Australian Playing XI in place of Jess Jonassen. Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first.
Megan Schutt opened the bowling attack, and the Murshida Khatun-Shamima Sultana duo was on the crease to kick the innings off. The first over went well for the Tigers as Khatun scored a beautiful boundary on the fifth ball but her partner fell prey to the cut shot played in the air in the next over to resign for just 1 off 4 balls. An early wicket for Bangladesh!
After a silent third over and raging Australian attack, Khatun (7 off 8 balls) too got bowled down by the building pressure in the very early minutes of the match. But things were meant to change with the arrival of the Bangladesh captain, Nigar Sultana as she smoked two back-to-back boundaries in the fourth over.
She got pumped up further in the last over of the powerplay to conclude it with a four on the third ball and the first maximum of the match on the fifth ball of the sixth over. Sobhana Mostary tried to carry the momentum forward with the skipper with a charged boundary in the eighth over but got succumbed to Wareham’s half-tracker at just 7 off a painful 17.
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Nigar kept the scoreboard moving with constant running between the wickets and timely boundaries, one in the ninth over and another in the thirteenth but the building partnership with Shorna Akter could only last till the beginning of the seventeenth over after her flat four in the previous over.
Some copy-paste scenes also prevailed temporarily for Rumana Ahmed as she also handed her wicket to Wareham after hitting a four in the same over. And there too came the fiercely fought 57-run knock of the skipper in the nineteenth over in an attempt to score some biggies. With three singles, two doubles and Nahida Akter’s LBW, the Bangladesh scoreboard summarized at 107 for 7.
Marufa Akter was ready in the second half of the match with the new ball in hand. Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney walked down in the middle of the wickets to commence the Australian innings which was laid somewhat well by the former with an explosive boundary in the very first over.
Mooney struggled hard in the third over and edged her wicket away to Marufa. But, Healy, from the other end, looked to be set from the pavilion itself and charged Nahida Akter’s fourth ball of the fourth over for a gigantic six which was followed well by Meg Lanning’s boundary in the same over.
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Despite an early wicket, Healy looked much more pumped up than before to smash two consecutive boundaries in the fifth over and Lanning concluded the powerplay with a powerful boundary and a single to put the scoreboard at 45 for 1.
Dropped at 25 and a boundary too, Healy got a chance again to finish things off for her side and with an outstanding rotation of strikes between the batters brought the 50-run partnership in the ninth over that too off just 35 balls.
But the outstanding 37-run knock by Healy ultimately saw the collapse on the third ball of the thirteenth over as Shorna Akter bounced back for a breakthrough. With six back-to-back singles in the fourteenth over, Australia made it clear that the match is now in their favour, and they just don’t want to haste and are on their way to finishing it comfortably.
Although Lanning’s eighteenth over four put her near the half-century, it was Ashleigh Gardner finally with the winning boundary on the second ball of the nineteenth over to freeze the scoreboard at 111 for the loss of 2.
ICC T20 World Cup 2023: Australia vs Bangladesh, Match 7 Brief Score
Bangladesh 107/7 in 20 overs (Nigar Sultana 57; Georgia Wareham 3-20, Darcie Brown 2-23) lost to Australia 111/3 in 18.2 overs (Meg Lanning 48*, Alyssa Healy 37) by 8 wickets.
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