ICC Women World Cup 2022: Pretty disappointed with our batting – Nigar Sultana

Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana was pretty disappointed with her team’s batting performance against West Indies in the 17th match of the ongoing ICC Women World Cup 2022 at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui on Friday after they lost by only four runs.

Bangladesh bowlers did a fine job for the team as they restricted West Indies to 140-9 in 50 overs after Nigar Sultana won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Sharmin Akhter, Fargana Hoque, Nigar Sultana, and Salma Khatun all got off to starts in the run-chase but none of them could convert it into a substantial score to get their team over the line. Nahida Akter scored an unbeaten knock of 25 runs but she ran out of partners in the end.

The game went down to the wire as Bangladesh needed eight runs off the final over with only one wicket in hand. However, Stafanie Taylor dismissed Fariha Trishna on the third ball of the over.

Nigar Sultana said in the post-match presentation, “I think it was a very close match. How our bowlers started was incredible. Pretty disappointed with our batting. We lacked partnerships and I should have played till the end. We have to work on this going forward. We were planning to utilize the conditions and our bowlers managed to do that. We have more games to come and have to take the positives. We lack experience in such situations and if we play more then we will get better.”

On the other hand, Hayley Matthews came up with a fine performance for West Indies. She returned with impressive figures of 4-15 in her quota of 10 overs. Ergo, she was awarded the Player of the Match for her fine show with the ball. Matthews had also contributed 18 runs in the batting innings.

Matthews said after the game, “Obviously a bit worrying to see her (Connell) go down like that. She is a fighter, am not sure what’s wrong with her but she will be alright. We knew we did not have enough runs on the board, so we needed to produce something special with the ball and all the spinners stepped up to the plate. We bowled well in partnerships and that’s what we needed to do. We have played a lot of ODI cricket through 2021 and that has helped us here. Playing a lot more matches, international cricket is helping us in such situations. Our coaching staff continuously keep working on us and instilling confidence in the players.”

Bangladesh Women will next face India at Seddon Park, Hamilton on Tuesday.