Nigar the lone warrior in Bangladesh's 45-run defeat in 1st India T20I
Nigar, who was the second-highest run-getter in the Australia T20I series, was the only batter with a substantial contribution again. While the order of the day for others was to play around the captain, none of them could really feel at home in the middle.
After quite a fantastic tour of South Africa where they managed to upstage the hosts in a couple of white-ball games, Bangladesh women's team's batting looked in decent shape. But the recent historic home series against Australia saw everything fall apart for Nigar Sultana's side.
Although the bowling was good, in fact great, in patches, the batting performance throughout that series left a lot to be desired. Captain Nigar was almost the lone ranger for the team with the bat but she couldn't save Bangladesh from succumbing to four sub-100 totals in six matches (three ODIs and as many T20Is).
Before the series against India, a team against whom the Tigresses had fared superbly in the recent past, many expected the home side to produce the goods. But the hosts couldn't make amends as another below-par batting effort saw them sink to a 45-run defeat in the first T20I of the five-match T20I series at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet on Sunday.
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Nigar, who was the second-highest run-getter in the Australia T20I series, was the only batter with a substantial contribution again. While the order of the day for others was to play around the captain, none of them could really feel at home in the middle.
Before getting out to Pooja Vastrakar, Nigar scored a fighting 48-ball-51 with the help of five fours and a six. Only two other batters - Murshida Khatun and Shorna Akter - reached double figures.
Renuka Singh was the pick of the bowlers with three scalps. Vastrakar took two wickets. Bangladesh, in the end, couldn't score more than 100-8 in their 20 overs.
Earlier, 19-year-old leg-spinner Rabeya Khan picked up three wickets to restrict India to a moderate total of 145-7 after 20 overs.
There were vital thirties from Shafali Verma (31 off 22), Yastika Bhatia (36 off 29) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (30 off 22).
Bangladesh pulled things back a bit towards the back end, giving away just 35 runs in the last five overs.
Pacer Marufa Akter picked up two wickets in the last over of India's innings while Fariha Trisna and Fahima Khatun accounted for one each.
