‘Need to play top sides regularly’

Bangladesh's bowling brilliance was not enough to clinch a historic victory against New Zealand in their Group A encounter of the Women's T20 World Cup at the Junction Oval in Melbourne yesterday.

Ritu Moni's first four-wicket haul, which cost 18 runs, are the best figures of the tournament so far. Salma Khatun added three wickets for seven runs as New Zealand were bundled out for just 91, the second-lowest total at T20 World Cups, but the Tigresses still suffered a 17-run defeat following a terrible batting failure.

A third consecutive defeat saw them crash out of the tournament and they will now play their last group match against Sri Lanka tomorrow in Melbourne.

"After the first innings, we planned to go not for quick or hard-hitting batting, we just tried to be calm. But in the end, we were not able to bat well and that was a really poor performance from us. But credit goes to New Zealand, of course, because of the way they bowled," Ritu said during the post-match press conference.

Hayley Jensen and Leigh Kasperek took three wickets apiece as New Zealand produced a comeback to down Bangladesh, bowling the Tigresses out for 74. The win means Group A is set-up for a final showdown, with a trans-Tasman match on Monday pitting New Zealand against Australia on Monday, with the winner set to reach the semifinals.

Salma's side showed a lot of promise and improvement in the bowling and fielding departments in their three matches but they lacked the batting prowess to compete with quality opposition.

Ritu Moni believes they can only improve by playing top opponents on a regular basis.

"We need to play regular cricket series with top-ranked teams because that is the only way we can improve. We can compare ourselves to them and gauge where we are. We look forward to that because the more we'll play with the top teams, the more we will improve. This is definitely one of the key things to improve our cricket," she said.

SCORES IN BRIEF

NEW ZEALAND: 91 all out in 18.2 overs (Rachel Priest 25; Ritu Moni 4-18, Salma Khatun 3-7)

BANGLADESH: 74 all out in 19.5 overs (Nigar Sultana 21; Hayley Jensen 3-11, Leigh Kasperek 3-23)

Result: New Zealand won by 17 runs.