Tigresses qualify for WT20
The Bangladesh women's cricket team qualified for the Women's World Twenty20 for the third time by outclassing their Scottish counterparts by 49 runs in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier semifinal in Amstelveen, Netherlands yesterday.
Middle-order batter Nigar Sultana set up the clinical win by scoring 31 in Bangladesh's score of 125 for six, and that was followed by miserly bowling from all-rounder Rumana Ahmed who took two wickets for 10 runs from four overs to help restrict Scotland to 76 for seven in 20 overs.
The Tigresses join Ireland, who beat Papua New Guinea in the day's earlier semifinal, as the two teams from eight hopefuls to qualify for the biennial global tournament to be held in the West Indies in December this year. The two sides will contest the final in Utrecht tomorrow.
All through the qualifying event the Tigresses rode on excellent bowling performances, not once allowing their opposition to cross 100 in the 20-over tournament. They had bowled first in each of the group stage matches, which made for early finishes as they kept Papua New Guinea to 84 for six and bowled out Netherlands and UAE for 42 and 39 respectively.
In the semifinal, however, they made full use of their chance after being asked to bat first. Apart from Nigar's 36-ball innings which included two fours, there were useful contributions from openers Shamima Sultana (22 off 16) and Ayasha Rahman (20 off 27).
The total was always going to be too much for Scotland, for whom no one apart from Sarah Bryce (31) and skipper Kathryn Bryce (21) reached double figures. Besides player-of-the-match Rumana, Nahida Akter took two wickets while skipper Salma Khatun and Fahima Khatun took one wicket apiece.
The Tigresses had previously participated in World T20s in 2014 at home and in 2016 in India, but failed to make it out of the group stage on either occasion.
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