Sports
Australia-Bangladesh Despite raising hopes, Bangladesh women lose to Australia
Dhaka, March 26: Huge gap in power. Australia is a six-time world champion, Bangladesh has gone to play in the World Cup for the first time. The girls of Bangladesh shook such a strong opponent and also raised the hope of victory. However, the dream of Bangladesh was not fulfilled till the end. Beth Mooney's unbeaten half-century helped the Aussies overcome the disaster. They won with 65 balls and 5 wickets in hand.
Chasing the target of 136 runs in 43 overs, Australia fell in the face of Salma Khatun's wizardry from the very beginning. Salma led the Aussies' top three batsmen Alyssa Healy (15), Rachel Haynes (6) and Meg Lanning (0) to the dressing room.
Salma bowled Australian captain Mag Lenning. After that, when Tahlia McGrath fell victim to Nahida Akhtar's lbw, Australia lost 4 wickets in 41 runs.
Rumana Ahmed bowled Ashley Garner (13) when Australia's score was 70 runs. Bangladesh's hopes of victory were well awakened then. But Beth Mooney shattered all dreams with a great half-century.
Mooney remained unbeaten in the end after playing an innings of 66 runs off 75 balls with 5 boundaries. Annabel Sutherland made 26 off 39 balls. In the sixth wicket, their pair of 66 runs snatched the victory from Bangladesh.
The match could not start on time due to rain at Wellington's Basin Reserve. The game of 50 overs came down to 43 overs. In this fight of cartel over, Bangladesh girls scored 135 runs for 6 wickets.
After winning the toss, the Australian girls sent Bangladesh to bat. The Tigers had a good start. Murshid Khatun and Sharmin Akhter scored 33 runs in the opening match.
When Murshid returned with 12 runs, the pair broke up. Then Farzana Haque (7) was set out. Sharmin Akhter returned on the 24th. If captain Nigar Sultana could not score more than 7 runs, Bangladesh would be under pressure.
They lost 4 wickets for 62 runs. But later Rumana Ahmed, Lata Mandal and Salma Khatun scored 135 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Rumana scored 15 runs. Salma remained unbeaten on 15 off 23 balls.
