Skipper Nigar Sultana Joty鈥檚 fifty went in vain after her fellow teammates failed to support her as Bangladesh women鈥檚 national team suffered a 44-run defeat in the first of their five-match Twenty20 International series against India at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Joty struck a 48-ball 51 - her seventh T20I fifty 鈥� hitting five fours and one maximum聽but聽she did not find anyone to assist her from the other end, which saw them finishing on 101-8 in reply to India鈥檚 145-7.聽
Renuka Singh was the pick of the Indian bowlers with 3-18, while Pooja Vastarkar took 2-25. Sheryanka Patil, Deepti Sharma, and Radha Yadav claimed one wicket each.
For India,聽Yastika Bhatia was the top-scorer with 36 off 29 balls, while the next best 31 off 22 came from Shafali Verma鈥檚 bat.
Rabeya Khan took 3-23聽and聽Marufa Akter picked up 2-13, while the remaining two wickets聽were shared聽among Fahima Khatun and Fariha Trishna.
Bangladesh were never in the hunt as they lost their top four batters with just 30 runs on the board. Joty then led the charge, sharing partnerships worth 32, 16, and 21 runs with Shorna Akter, Rabeya, and Nahida Akter for the fifth, sixth, and seventh wicket, respectively, to take the side to triple figures.
It was a poor performance from a batting perspective as apart from Joty, only two other batters 鈥� Murshida Khatun (13) and Shorna Akter (11) 鈥� could hit double figures.
Earlier, opting to bat first, India made a shaky start, losing opener Smrity Mandhana for a run-a-ball nine to Trishna. However, they curbed the damage as Yastika and Shafali combined for a 31-ball 43-run stand.聽
Rabeya dismissed the latter to push them onto the back foot聽but聽they once again fought back after skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Bhatia shared a 45-run partnership off 33 balls to take the visitors near the one hundred and fifty run mark.