Women's World Cup Qualifier: Sultana helps Bangladesh top table
Cricket
Bangladesh only need another victory to confirm their spot for the main event in India
LAHORE (Web Desk) - Bangladesh returned to the top of the Women's ODI World Cup Qualifier points table with a 34-run win over Scotland, who remain in third place. Scotland have only one match left in the competition and must beat Ireland on Friday and hope one of Pakistan or Bangladesh loses both their remaining matches to give themselves a chance of making it to the World Cup. Bangladesh, with a game in hand, only need another victory to confirm their spot for the main event in India later this year and look set to make a second successive World Cup appearance.
Their victory was built on their captain Nigar Sultana's third fifty-plus score in as many matches, which has also put her on top of the qualifiers run-scorers table. Bangladesh boast two of the top three batters so far. Sharmin Akhter, who scored her second fifty in three matches is the other.
Sharmin and Fargana Hoque's second-wicket stand of 103 runs put Bangladesh on track for a big score after the early loss of Ishma Tanjim, who got into double figures for the first time in her career after debuting against Thailand last week. She was caught at mid-off in the ninth over, off Priyanaz Chatterji, which left the experienced Hoque and Sharmin to help Bangladesh recover. They each scored 57 and took their partnership deep to set a platform for Joty. She was in to bat in the 30th over and wasted little time as she struck her first boundary off the 13th ball she faced and quickly got her strike rate over a run a ball. Her fifty came off 39 balls and she was unbeaten on 83 at the end of the innings.
All of Scotland's frontline bowlers, apart from legspinner Abtaha Maqsood, were among the wickets but none were able to keep Joty quiet and she was the major contributor in each of the four partnerships she was part of. Her 61-run sixth-wicket stand with Fahima Khatun took Bangladesh over 270 and ensured they set Scotland a challenging target.
In 21 previous ODIs, Scotland had only chased seven times before today and won chasing once. They successfully reached a target of 134 against Netherlands in Amstelveen last year. Today's task was to score more than double that number of runs and it was always going to be tough.
They were off to a speedy start with 12 runs from the first two overs before Abbi Aitken-Drummond played an expansive drive and edged Marufa Akter onto her own stumps. That was Marufa's first wicket of the qualifying campaign. Left-arm spinner Nahida Akter made the big incision when she bowled Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce with a delivery that snuck through the bat-pad gap and onto middle stump and then caught Pippa Sproul off her own bowling. Scotland were 31 for 3 in the eighth over and struggling.
Sarah Bryce and Ailsa Lister put on 47 for the fourth wicket but Lister was run out for 18 and Bryce was left to marshal the rest of the middle and lower order against a Bangladesh attack that have skill and variety in their arsenal. Legspinner Rabeya Khan had Megan McColl out lbw and though Sarah Bryce looked composed for most of her 42 but popped one back to offspinner Jannatul Ferdus. She bowled Katherine Fraser in her next over to sit joint second on the tournament's leading wicket-takers list, two behind Hayley Matthews.
Chatterji and Rachel Slatter scored a pair of 61 - both career-bests - and shared in a record 115-run eighth wicket stand, the highest for Scotland for that wicket but their efforts came too late. Though they frustrated a Bangladesh attack that went searching for wickets, the margin of Scotland's defeat makes the contest look closer than it was. They were never really in the chase and Bangladesh's net run-rate did not take that much of a hit. Theirs is the highest of the six teams at 1.49.
IRELAND POST FIRST WIN OF THE TOURNAMENT
In the day's earlier match, Ireland, already out of contention for the World Cup, recorded their first win of the campaign over Thailand. Ireland's win by 46 runs also confirmed Thailand, who are winless after three matches, have no chance of making it to the World Cup. Ireland have lost three of the four matches they have played so far and will be particularly disappointed with their struggles to close out this game quickly. Thailand were never in the hunt to chase 306 but batted until the last over and scored their highest ODI total in response.
Ireland's batting came to the party with the first total over 300 of the World Cup Qualifier. Gaby Lewis, Amy Hunter and Leah Paul all scored half-centuries at a good clip but none of them went on to three figures. Paul's 67* came off just 40 balls as Ireland posted their fourth-highest ODI total of 305 for 4. They would have thought they had enough, especially with Thailand 76 for 4 in the 18th over.
But there was plenty of fight in Thailand's middle and lower order. Naruemol Chaiwai and Phannita Maya put on 90 runs for the fifth wicket and though the required run-rate climbed above eight runs an over in their time together, they frustrated Ireland in the field.
Ireland's catching also left a lot to be desired. After putting down six chances against West Indies and three against Bangladesh, they dropped two of legspinner Cara Murray and two off debutant offspinner Kia McCartney in this match. Both Murray and McCartney were expensive and conceded 68 and 73 runs but bowled a full allocation of 10 overs each.
Thailand's No.7 Suwanan Khiaoto scored her first ODI half-century and put on 71 off 69 balls with Thipatcha Puttawong in a stubborn eighth-wicket stand. Louise Little separated them and took three wickets in two balls to finish with career-best figures of 4 for 5 for 28.
