Another dismal show by Tigresses

The Bangladesh women's team's flagging fortunes in top-flight cricket showed little signs of improvement as they suffered a punishing six-wicket defeat against their Sri Lankan counterparts in their opening Women's T20 Asia Cup match in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The Tigresses, who suffered massive defeats last month away in South Africa, where they lost the ODI series 5-0 and the T20I series 3-0, seemed to have hardly recovered even in conditions that suited them much more. Sent in to bat, they were bundled out for 63 in 19.3 overs. It was their fourth lowest total in a completed 20-over game, with their lowest being 44 against Pakistan in 2016.

The batting once again proved to be the weak link in a team that started their humble T20 journey in 2012 in a most spectacular fashion by winning their first-ever T20 game by three runs against Ireland in Dublin. It was also the year when they won three out of seven T20 games. The two other wins were against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

But since then they have been on a decline, losing 29 matches against two wins. The Tigresses' last win was against Ireland in 2014.

In yesterday's game, only three Bangladesh women reached double figures with opener Ayasha Rahman top-scoring with 11 in that sorry total. Sri Lanka's left-arm spinner Sugandika Kumari picked up three wickets for 17 runs.

The Lankans, in their chase, raced to 39 for no loss before losing four wickets in quick succession in the face of some intelligent bowling from off-spinner Khadija Tul Kubra, who took three for 13 in her four overs. But the Lankan victory was never in doubt as they reached 64 for four with more than five overs to spare.

Bangladesh will play their next game against Pakistan today.

SCORES IN BRIEF

Bangladesh: 63 all out in 19.3 overs (Ayasha 11, Rumana 10, Nigar 10; Prabodhani 2-6, Kumari 3-17, Ranasinghe 2-10, Ranaweera 2-15)

Sri Lanka: 64 for 4 in 14.3 overs (Mendis 20, Hansika 23; Khadija 3-13)

Result: Sri Lanka women won by 6 wickets.