Australia and Bangladesh locked horns with each other in match no. 8 of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.
Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first. But the decision backfired for them as they got off to a very slow start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. However, Nigar Sultana‘s captain’s knock of 57 runs from 50 balls helped Bangladesh post a total of 107 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
Georgia Wareham was the pick of the bowlers for Australia, taking three wickets for 20 runs in her four overs, while Darcie Brown chipped in with two wickets for 23 runs.
In reply, the Women in Yellow started their innings steadily, with Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning adding 69 runs for the second wicket. Healy scored 37 runs from 36 balls, while Lanning top-scored with 48 runs from 49 deliveries.
Marufa Akter and Shorna Akter scalped a wicket each for Bangladesh, but their efforts went in vain as Australia chased down the set target in the 18th over with eight wickets in hand.
Another comprehensive victory for Australia.#AUSvBAN Scorecard: https://t.co/sG6ivVRfev #CricketTwitter #WomenCricket pic.twitter.com/LlrL4w3xLs
— WomenCricket.com (@WomenCricketHQ) February 15, 2023
For her exceptional performance, Wareham was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’. Speaking about her performance in the post-match presentation, she said: “It’s great to come and play for your country, at the end of the day, great to have 3 wickets. The focus was to stay in there and cash in at the back-end (on the batters), but there was some turn on offer. Honoured to play for the country, grateful for the selectors to have backed me. The crowd were really loud, the atmosphere was really terrific.”
Notably, this was Australia’s second consecutive win in the tournament, and they have now moved up to the top spot in the Group A points table with this victory. Meanwhile, Bangladesh have lost both of their matches and are at fourth place in the points table.
