In a bid to end the campaign with good note, Bangladesh will take on Sri Lanka in their last match of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup (WC) today (Monday) at Melbourne in Australia.
The stake is still high for Bangladesh in the match that is considered as dead-rubber for them. If they can beat Sri Lanka, the Tigress would finish at eighth position and in that case, they would have a direct entry to the next edition of this tournament in 2022.
But in case of a defeat, Bangladesh would have to play the Qualifier phase for a place in 2022 T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh so far remains winless in the tournament after losing to India by 18 runs, Australia by 86 runs and New Zealand by 17 runs. They however had the golden chance to beat New Zealand after bowling out the Kiwis for just 91 runs, thanks to a 4-18 of medium pacer Ritu Moni but a reckless batting saw them bowled out for 74 runs just.
Sri Lanka also came off with three straight defeats and so they also eye to end the tournament with holding head high.
Sri Lanka’s one player who has certainly caught the world’s attention is captain Chamari Athapaththu.
The fearless opener stood out having hit scores of 41 and 33 against New Zealand and India respectively alongside a half-century against hosts Australia.
For Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun, taking the wicket of Athapaththu is just the first step to achieving their tournament target-at least a victory.
If their ability to restrict New Zealand to 91 is anything to go by, Bangladesh have a good chance of taking more big wickets, but Salma is urging her side to be alert in all three areas.
“We want to put up a fight against Sri Lanka. It’s our last chance to not have to play the World Cup qualifiers,” Salma said.
“There’s no doubt Athapaththu is a hard-hitting and in-form batter and we have built up a plan against her which we will apply in Monday’s match, taking her wicket will give us a bigger chance to win. We need to do well in all three departments to win, though,” she added.
