Bangladesh women鈥檚 national cricket team suffered a hammering 10-wicket defeat to India on Friday in the first semi-final of the ongoing Asia Cup 2024 in Dambulla, Sri Lanka to get knocked out of the tournament.
This is Bangladesh sixth straight defeat to India in this format this year.
Batting first, Bangladesh could only manage 80-8 as only two batters 鈥� skipper Nigar Sultana Joty [32] and Shorna Akter [19*] 鈥� managed to reach double figures.
They were never in the game from the very start, losing three wickets in the powerplay 鈥� a procession that never stopped.
The chase was a cakewalk for India as Smriti Mandhana鈥檚 unbeaten fifty saw them reach their target 鈥� and the final 鈥� unscathed.
Expectedly, Joty was ruing several aspects of their display.
鈥榃e couldn鈥檛 understand what we wanted. Losing too many wickets in the powerplay hurt. When top order is not making runs, it is difficult for the team to come up with runs,鈥� she said.
鈥業t is about mentality. They are capable of playing shots, but against India, they play differently. We need to work on our batting, because of that we are losing games.鈥�
After opting to bat first, Bangladesh saw some rays of hope when opener Dilara Akter smashed Renuka Singh for a six in the third delivery of the innings with a slog sweep over square leg.
However, that joy was cut short as she tried to replicate the same shot in the next delivery and holed out to the fielder in the deep.
That began the landslide for Bangladesh as Joty tried to steer them out of it but she did not find any support until Shorna, meaning their collapse only plunged them into further trouble.
Their batting effort can be summed up by the final over alone. After Joty fell on the first delivery trying to hit a six, Shorna was left stranded at the other end as the next five balls did not produce a single run.
Renuka was the star Indian bowler with three wickets as she was named Player of the Match.
Chasing the small total, India were off to a brilliant start as their opening pair of Shafali Verma and Mandhana added 46 runs in the powerplay.
The final nail in the coffin of proof that it was not Bangladesh鈥檚 day was when Jahanara Alam got Mandhana caught on 35 but that was called a no-ball due to a massive overstep, and then Verma was dropped in the next over.
Mandhana ended up unbeaten on 55 off 39 balls, while Verma scored 26 off 28 balls.