Marufa-powered Tigresses walk the talk

Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty was asked whether their maiden ODI victory against India on Sunday was the most historic win in their cricket history apart from the ICC tournaments. Joty jokingly answered, "Whatever we do becomes part of the history". The win over India was surely historic. What makes it more special is the way the Tigresses clinched the victory, comfortably by 40 runs (DLS method).

Joty, in her pre-match press conference, stated that Bangladesh are the favourites in the ODI series despite losing in all five previous meetings in this format. According to Joty, the win in the final T20I gave them the much-needed momentum to boost themselves. But Joty needed someone on the field, apart from herself, to translate the confidence into performance. She found that in Marufa Akter, the 18-year-old speedster whom Bangladesh's head coach Hashan Thilakarathne labelled as 'one of the best in the world' after the historic win on Sunday. 

Marufa breathed fire on Sunday. Being the only pacer in the eleven, she did exactly what she was asked to claiming her career-best 4/29 and the fourth wicket that shattered Sneh Rana's stumps was probably the highlight of the match. She bagged back-to-back wickets in that 29th over, sending debutant Amanjot Kaur and Rana back to the pavilion in consecutive deliveries all but sealed the match for the hosts. 

The 18-year-old was deadly right from the word go. She began the wicketfest early in India's pursuit of 154 runs. Her first victim was Smriti Mandhana for 11 before Marufa bagged the visitors' other opener Yastika Bhatia. Marufa's early strikes reduced India to 30/2 in the ninth over. 

The spinner were doing well after the early momentum. But the skipper opted for Marufa in the middle overs. She came back to the attack and did what she was expected to do. Joty admitted it was the coach's call to bring back Marufa to the attack. What was the thinking behind that?

"She's one of the top bowlers in the world right now. Also, the batters were handling the spinners very well. So, we wanted to dig the momentum. That's one of the reasons we wanted to bowl Marufa," Thilakarathne explained.

The whole team was aware that they were 30-40 runs short after putting up 152 on the board. "We were looking at at least 200 plus," Bangladesh's head coach admitted. But the fight they showed, was genuinely praiseworthy, believes Thilakarathne. 

Bangladesh know they still have some work to do in the ODIs. With two more games to go, the team's focus is now to seal the series.

"The girls were excited, of course. But I told them this is not the end. The expectations are higher now. I stopped them from over-celebrating because we still have matches to win. If we win the series, then we will celebrate properly," a confident Joty said sending warnings to the visitors.