Women's clean sweep

CELEBRATING A SERIES WHITEWASH: Bangladesh women cricketers are all smiles on the winners' podium after their 4-0 series triumph over Hong Kong at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Photo: STAR

As expected Bangladesh women cricketers completed a series whitewash against their Hong Kong counterparts when they registered a 115-run victory in the fourth and final one-dayer at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
The home side showed no mercy to the lightweight visiting team in the last game which was only of an academic interest after Bangladesh had already sealed the series by winning first three games quite comfortably at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium last week.
Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun once against showed that she was the lady to beat in the series with yet another fine knock of 63 in the home side's descent total of 211-9 in 50 overs. Her second fifty in the series contained five fours.
Salma was adjudged player-of-the-tournament for her all-rounder performance with 171 runs and seven wickets.
She got good support from her deputy Panna Ghosh who slammed 40 off 61 balls that contained three boundaries.
The most encouraging aspect for the home team was that they could bat their full quota of 50 overs for a third successive occasion which would be helpful for the team when they play the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in May.
For the visitors, the only consolation was the batting of their captain Neisha Pratt who scored a 105-ball 61 that featured five boundaries and the bowling of Connie Wong who claimed three wickets for 47 to become player-of-the-match.
Their efforts were however not good enough to avoid another huge defeat in the series after Bangladesh won the first game by eight wickets, second match by 109 runs and the third one by 71 runs.
In reply to the challenging total, Hong Kong were bundled out for 96 runs in 40.3 overs with eight batswomen returning to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.
Jahanara Alam bowled only three balls for the hattrick in the series after her skipper's feat in the first game.
Salma was very pleased with her team's performance in the series.
"We are really very happy because as expected we got the success. Our bowling and batting were really good through out the series, but we want to improve our performance and take the women's cricket a few steps forward," said an elated Salma.
On the other hand, Hong Kong captain Neisha said that playing on grass wickets was the most pleasing experience for her team.
"We lost the series but we enjoyed the cricket here. We have improved in every game. We are specially happy because we got the opportunity to play cricket on grass wickets as we are used to play on astro-turfs at home," said the visiting skipper.
"It's virtually a school team because our players' average age is between 12 to 13. In Hong Kong they hardly get any chance to play cricket, so it's an amazing experience for them," said Hong Kong coach Afzal Haider.
SCORES IN BRIEF
BANGLADESH: 211 for nine in 50 overs (Sathira 20, Panna 40, Salma 63, Chamely 23, extras 34; Connie 3-47, Betty 2-35)
HONG KONG: 96 all out in 40.3 overs (Connie 14, Pratt 61, extras 15; Romana 3-16, Jahanara 3-0)
Result: Bangladesh women team won by 115 runs.