With a sweet memory of crushing Thailand by a record margin in the first match last Thursday, the Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team will play Ireland in their 2nd match of the six-nation ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers at the renovated traditional Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday.
The Bangladesh team made a flying start in the ongoing Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, crushing Thailand by a record 178 runs in the opener at the Lahore City Cricket Association ground last Thursday, featuring a maiden and quick ODI century by captain Nigar Sultana Joty (103 runs off 80 balls, 4X15, 6X1), the 2nd ton by any Bangladeshi women’s cricketer in the ODI format.
After Friday’s matches, hosts Pakistan dominated the points table, securing four points from two straight matches. Bangladesh followed them with an all-win run, collecting two points from only one match with a comfortable net run rate of +3.560, while Scotland and West Indies also bagged two points each playing two matches.
In the remaining league matches, Bangladesh will play Scotland on April 15, West Indies on April 17 and hosts Pakistan on April 19.
The top two teams of the ongoing six-team qualifiers will earn the rights to play in the eight-team final round of the ICC Women’s World Cup to be held in India next September-October alongside six directly qualified teams—India, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
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Sent in into bat first in Thursday's match, Bangladesh piled up their ODI highest innings of 271 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs, and later they bundled out Thailand cheaply for just 93 runs in only 28.5 overs to achieve their ever-highest ODI victory.
Bangladesh also made a record partnership in that match, hammering 152 runs off 138 balls in the 3rd wicket stand by Sharmin Akter and captain Nigar Sultana Joty.
Earlier, the Bangladesh women's team practised very well in Pakistan, crushing hosts Pakistan Women's by a massive 167 runs in their second warm-up match after beating Scotland by five wickets in the first warm-up match ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.