Bangladesh women gear up for WT20 qualifiers

Bangladesh women gear up for WT20 qualifiers

Dhaka, July 6 (Just News): An in-form Bangladesh national women’s team will start their ICC World T20 Qualifier mission on Saturday as they take on Papua New Guinea in their first Group A match at VRA Cricket Ground, Amstelveen in Netherlands.

The women’s team will start their qualifying campaign as top favorites as they beat Ireland, another promising side competing in this tournament to seal their place in the main stage, 2-1 last week in a three-match Twenty20 series in Dublin.

After a disappointing South Africa series in May where Bangladesh team lost all of their eight matches against their local counterparts in both one-day international and Twenty20 series, they fought back strongly and clinched their maiden success in global cricket by defeating India in Asia Cup final last month.

The success in that tournament changed the prospect of women’s team and they would be now competing to seal their place for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 which would be staged in the Caribbean from November 9-24 this year.

The women’s team continued their good run in Netherlands also as they defeated Scotland by nine wickets in the lone warm-up match at Rotterdam on Thursday and they would like to carry the same spirit in the qualifier matches also.

‘I have been pretty impressed with the potential and talent of the Bangladesh team,’ Bangladesh coach Anju Jain, a former India wicketkeeper-batter, was quoted in an ICC statement as saying.

‘I have only been here for the past two months and in that time the girls have been doing really well, credit goes to the players for the way they have responded.

‘Our main focus has been converting potential to performance, as a team we need to look to keep on improving and make sure we qualify for the ICC Women’s WT20 in the West Indies,’ she added.

The women’s team will play against hosts Netherlands on Sunday at Kampong Cricket Club, Utrecht before facing United Arab Emirates on Tuesday in their last Group match at the same venue.

In the other matches of the day, hosts Netherlands will take on United Arab Emirates in the other Group A match while in Group B matches, Ireland will face Thailand and Scotland will take on Uganda in the opening fixtures of the tournament.

Top two sides from the qualifiers will join Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20.

 

(Justnews/ys/1910hr)