The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Thursday finalised the groupings and fixtures of the two Women's Asian Cup Football tournaments – AFC U-20 and AFC U-17. The AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup is scheduled to be held in March next year while AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup Football is scheduled for April next year. Bangladesh will host the three-nation Group H matches of the AFC U-20 Women's Asia Cup Football in March next year. The hosts have been placed in Group H of the qualifying round of the continental women's meet alongside Iran and Turkmenistan. Iran will play Turkmenistan in the inaugural match on March 8, the venue of which is yet to be announced. Bangladesh will start their campaign by taking on Turkmenistan on March 10 and play their remaining group match against Iran on March 12. Read: AFC U-20 Asian Cup: Bangladesh finish on winning note beating Nepal 3-0 Thirty-one Asian countries, split into eight groups, will take part in the competition. Meanwhile, the grouping of AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup Football scheduled for April next year was also announced Thursday. Bangladesh have been put in Group D of the Asian junior women's competition along with hosts Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Turkmenistan. Bangladesh will play the opening match against Turkmenistan on April 26, face the UAE on April 28 and meet hosts Singapore on April 30. Twenty-nine Asian nations, divided into eight groups, will participate in the competition.

Pakistan rebounded quickly in the ongoing Women's Asia Cup in Sylhet, beating their arch-rivals India by 13 runs Friday, after a shock defeat against Thailand. For Pakistan, all-rounder Nida Dar hit a fifty and bagged two wickets in their first win against India after 2016.  Nida and Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof added 76 runs in their partnership which helped their side post a challenging total of 137 for six. Nida remained unbeaten on 56 off 37 balls. Bismah scored 32.  For India, Deepti Sharma picked up three wickets and Pooja Vastrakar two.  In reply, most of India's batters had good starts but were not able to build on them. Wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh scored the highest 26 off 13 balls. The second-highest (20) runs came from Dayalan Hemalatha. India were bowled out for 124 in 19.4 overs.  For Pakistan, Nashra Sandhu took three wickets conceding 30 runs in four overs; Sadia Iqbal and Nida bagged two wickets each.  Read: Women's Asia Cup: Bangladesh beat Thailand by 9 wickets Despite today's defeat, India now sit at the top of the table with six points with three wins in four matches. Pakistan also earned as many points but India are ahead of them on a superior run rate. Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka secured four points each. But Bangladesh are ahead of Sri Lanka by virtue of a better run rate.  Thailand and the UAE are at number five and six at the point table with four and two points. Malaysia failed to secure any points despite playing four matches. 

On the eve of the Women’s Asia Cup cricket being hosted in Sylhet, Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana said their aim is to defend the title they won in  Malaysia in 2018 by playing good cricket at home.  Bangladesh will take on Thailand in the first match of the event on Saturday. The match will be played at the Sylhet International Stadium at 9 am.  Bangladesh are the defending champions of the Asia Cup. They won the last edition of this event in 2018 beating India in the final. “We just don’t want to play good, but we also want to keep the title at home,” Nigar told the media ahead of their first match. “We want to go match by match. We are not feeling any extra pressure.” The Bangladesh captain also said the team is already playing a good brand of cricket. They have won the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE as well. Read: Bangladesh squad for Women's T20 Asia Cup announced “Our target is to win the title of the Asia Cup,” she said.  Along with the hosts Bangladesh, the other participating teams are India, Pakistan, Thailand, the UAE, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. In the initial phase, the six teams will play each other once to determine the four semifinalists.  The final will take place on October 5. All the matches will be played at the same venue.