Bangladesh women, after producing a stunning victory against Australia to begin an impressive start in the ICC Women’s Under 19 Cricket World Cup, had a nerve shattering 10 runs victory over Sri Lanka in their second match on Monday.
Held at the same Stadium at Benoni, the Tigresses, who gave an early indication of their title credentials after overwhelming the tournament favourites Australia, also threw a challenging target of 165 to chase for their Sri Lankan counterparts on Monday.
After winning the match Bangladesh brightened their chance to make room in the super six.
Quick fire from opener Afifa Prottasa and Shorna Akhter at the middle, Bangladesh piled up the formidable total after being sent to bat first.
Afifa Prottasa along with her opening partner Mishti Shaha had a watchful start with scoring 52 runs in the first six overs (power play) in the opening stands with Afifa, who took the responsibility after early blow against Australia, steadied the ship with her partner Shorna of 75 runs from 11.1 overs and led a solid foundation.
But Prottasa, after scoring a very inspiring and a quick 53 off 43 balls was bowled by Nethranjali, and Mishti also followed her shortly after being run out adding four runs.
Afifa, the architect of building the formidable total, featured her 53 runs knock with hammering three sixes and cracked five boundaries in 43 balls.
After the departure of opening partners in quick succession, Dilara Akter and Shorna Akter were just as frequent as they were in the previous match.
Dilara and Shorna, the middle order duo, who looked more aggressive than they were in the previous match, recovered from two early setbacks, rallying to a competitive total when both the batters were unbeaten until sailing the team to 165 runs scoring 86 runs from 9.3 overs.
Shorna smashed her 50 from 28 deliveries, the quickest 50 ever by any of the Bangladesh women cricketers in any format of cricket when Dilara was also in a hurry to score 36 off 27 deliveries when she clubbed one six and three boundaries.
The Tigress bowlers initially looked equally attacking as their batters were sent to bat first when they made the breakthrough on the fourth ball. Marufa Akter drew first blood taking the opener Nethmi Senaratha for a duck when the team’s score was only four.
Disa Biswas made another blow when she just bowled out the other opener Sumudu Nisansala for eight runs when Sri Lankan were on 24.
In fact, nothing went Sri Lanka’s favour after they sent Bangladesh to bat when they looked to have lost their way after a debacle start to chase a mammoth total, apart from a huge struggle to fight back by the captain Vishmi Gunaratne and Dewmi Vihanga who could only make the match a very exciting one.
As two wickets fell in the space of three overs to leave them 24/2 approaching the long way to reach the target at the middle, captain Vishmi Gunaratne accompanied by Dewmi Vihanga tried hard to rescue the team from the collapse and also made a great threat to reach on the enormous target.
Vishmi and Dewmi, turned very aggressive to make success the impossible task, the partnership scored a gripping 96 runs in 12.4 overs
Marufa just gave a huge relief with dismantling the high flying Dewmi, who was just punishing Bangladesh bowlers scoring 55 of 44 balls with hitting seven fours and one six. Marufa , who made the first strike taking the opener Nethmi for a duck, trapped the danger Dewmi lbw to make a huge breakthrough.
Despite losing the longtime partner Dewmi, the captain Vishmi looked cool and more aggressive but her new partner Manudi Nanayakkara was run out with Shoma and Disa Biswas successfully breaking the wickets, and that time Sri Lanka needed 26 runs from five balls.
But Bangladesh bowlers did not concede the necessary runs, as they booked Sri Lanka on 155 for four wickets to have a nerve-wracking 10 runs win.