Bangladesh women suffered their first defeat in the ICC Women鈥檚 ODI World Cup Qualifier as they lost to West Indies by three wickets at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground on Thursday.听
Opting to bat first, Nigar Sultana Joty-led team posted 227-9 in 50 overs. In reply, West Indies reached 228-7 in 46 overs to keep themselves alive in the tournament.听
On the other hand, a win would have been enough for Bangladesh to book a spot in the World Cup to be held in India later this year. Now they will have to wait until the last match, where they face hosts Pakistan on April 19.听
Bangladesh were in a dominant position when Farzana Haque and Sharmin Akter built a partnership of 118 runs for the second wicket.听
But both Farzana (42) and Sharmin (67 off 79) fell within three deliveries of Aliyah Alleyne, and that triggered a collapse in the Bangladesh innings. They lost seven wickets for just 49 runs in that period.听
Nahida Akter (25) and Rabeya Khan (23 off 20) helped them to cross the 200-run mark, but they knew it was going to be difficult to defend.听
Bangladesh bowlers fought with that total, but the West Indies batters kept it together as six of their first seven batters reached at least 20 runs.听
Chinelle Henry held the innings together despite losing the key wickets of captain Hayley Mathews (33) and Stafanie Taylor (36) in quick succession.听
Henry remained unbeaten on 51 off 48 balls when the Caribbean side sealed the victory with four overs remaining.听
Later, in the post-match presentation, Bangladesh captain Joty said that they were 30-40 runs short in their batting.听
鈥楾he way we started our batting, I think we should have gotten to 250-plus runs because the wicket looked like that. So we were short, like, 30-40 runs at the end of the day. But still our bowlers and fielders fought really well,鈥� said Joty
The last match against Pakistan can become a do-or-die encounter for Bangladesh depending on the other results. But Joty doesn鈥檛 want to feel the pressure.听
鈥楽ee, if we take pressure, then we will not be able to give 100 per cent in the last game. We know that we have had some good performances here, so we just want to take this into the last game,鈥� said Joty.听
鈥楢nd obviously, we have got a very good side, and we just need our momentum. So we just want to play as a team,鈥� added the Bangladesh captain.听
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