Pakistan, West Indies, the Netherlands and South Africa all claimed victories on the opening day of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Dhaka, Bangladesh today. Sana Mir’s Pakistan defeated hosts Bangladesh by 73 runs in a hard-fought game played in front of strong home support. Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium saw over 4000 supporters fill the stands to cheer on the Bangladesh women’s side in its first round of the tournament that could see it qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2013.
Elsewhere, centuries from West Indians Juliana Nero and ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2011 Stafanie Taylor showed Ireland the Americas side’s intentions for the event are serious and a superior bowling attack saw Isobel Joyce’s side defeated by 213 runs at BKSP* 3. At Khanshaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Sri Lanka had South Africa all out for 114 but fell short of reaching the target by just six runs after Sunette Loubser took an impressive 5-27 to secure victory for the Africans.
Meanwhile Netherlands defeated Zimbabwe by six wickets after putting on a superior batting display led by Kerry-Anne Tomlinson and Miranda Veringmeier at BKSP 2.
In front of a lively crowd and playing live on national television, Bangladesh lost the toss and were put into field first in Mirpur – a decision that Mir may have regretted after some tight bowling from Salma Khatun and her bowling attack. Khatun was instrumental in the dismissal of the opener, Mir, after the 25-year-old mistimed a hit off the bowling of Lata Mondol to give the captain a nifty catch.
The rest of the Pakistan top order performed well with the bat, with the standout performance coming from Bismah Maroof with her patient 79 off a 106 balls, the 20-year-old from Lahore was dismissed by in-form bowler Khadiza Tul Kubra who had Bismah caught by Khatun. The Bangladeshi captain had a strong game in the field, claiming two wickets and three catches to see Pakistan 197 all out in its allotted overs.
In reply, Bangladesh’s batting attack failed to have a response to the strong bowling from the Pakistanis, with the side managing to make just 99 runs, while Pakistan’s bowlers gave away some 15 extras to give the Bangladeshis a total of 114 all out in just 42.4 overs. Nida Rashid proved to be the star bowler of the side with four wickets for just 29 runs, however, Bismah also claimed 2-16 and was judged by the on-field umpires to be most deserving candidate for Player of the Match award.
Bangladesh’s coach Mamatha Maben admitted that the Group B game had been tough with some areas needing to be worked, especially the middle order batting performance.
“We let too many extras go today which helped Pakistan in creating their total and we missed out on some chances to have them on the back-foot, whether it be with missed catches or poor fielding on our part. We let the Pakistanis create a partnership in the middle with Bismah and also Qanita Jalil showed some good batting which meant our bowlers couldn’t finish what they had started.
