The Bangladesh women’s cricket team had secured three consecutive wins in the Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers. In their fourth match, the Tigresses faced the West Indies with a straightforward equation—win the match and secure a spot in the World Cup. However, Nigar Sultana Joty’s team fell short.
With a direct path to the main stage of the World Cup laid out before them, the Bangladesh women’s team, led by Nigar Sultana, took on West Indies today. Despite posting 227 runs for 9 wickets, Bangladesh lost by 3 wickets. This defeat means Nigar and her team will have to wait longer to confirm their place in the Women’s World Cup, scheduled for September-October in India.
In the final match of the qualifiers, currently being held in Pakistan, Bangladesh will face hosts Pakistan on Saturday. A win in that match—or even if the match is abandoned due to rain—will secure Bangladesh’s place in the main event.
Of the first three matches, Bangladesh had won two while batting first. Captain Nigar Sultana chose to bat first again today after winning the toss at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. However, unlike the earlier matches, Bangladesh couldn’t post a big total this time.
In their first match, Bangladesh had lost the toss and batted against Thailand, setting a new record for their highest team total in history with 271/3. In the second match, they chased successfully against Ireland. In the third, they batted first again and rewrote their highest team total with 276/6 in a win over Scotland.
Nigar had played a key role in all three of those big scores. But today, she struggled with the bat, and Bangladesh could only manage 227/9 in their full 50 overs. The highest scorer for the team was Sharmin Akter with 67 runs.
In reply, the West Indies reached the target in 46 overs, losing 7 wickets. At one point, they were in trouble, losing 3 wickets for 74 runs in 16.3 overs.
However, a 66-run fourth-wicket partnership off 80 balls between Stafanie Taylor (36 off 51) and captain Hayley Matthews (33 off 45) brought them back into the game. Though both were dismissed within 7 runs of each other, Shemaine Henry’s unbeaten 51 off 48 balls guided the Caribbean side to a comfortable victory with 24 balls to spare.
