Tigresses keep collapsing

Inept batting continues to haunt the touring Bangladesh women's cricket team as Rumana Ahmed and her troops were bundled for a sub-100 total for the third consecutive time, crumbling to 76 all out in their crushing 154-run at the hands of their South African counterparts in the fourth ODI of the five-match series at the Diamond Oval in Kimberly yesterday.

The lack of technique and mental strength being exposed by a quality side has been the theme of the ongoing South Africa tour and yesterdays' defeat was no exception.

After being bundled out for 164 runs in the first ODI, Bangladesh's three subsequent totals have been  89, 71 and 76 while South Africa were largely untroubled with the bat -- highlighting the gulf in class between the two sides.

Chasing 231 -- a fairly modest target but one made all the more challenging because of the failures in the last two matches -- only three Bangladesh batters were able to reach double figures with Fargana Hoque's 22 being the highest score. At 66 for five there was some hope that the visitors would cross the 100 mark for the second time in the series, but they lost their last five wickets for just 10 runs.

Earlier, after the hosts chose to bat first opener Lizelle Lee top-scored with 70 off 102 balls while skipper Chloe Tryon added a quickfire sixty off just 42 balls with six fours and two sixes as the hosts added 48 runs in the last five overs.

Bangladesh will now hope against hope to avoid a 5-0 whitewash when they take the field for the fifth and final match on May 14 at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein.

SCORES IN BRIEF 
South Africa: 230 for 7 in 50 overs (Lee 70, Wolvaardt 32, Chetty 31, Tryon 60; Jahanara 2-54, Nahida 2-36)
Bangladesh: 76 all out in 33.2 overs (Fargana 22, Shamima 17; Ismail 2-8, Ntozakhe 2-10, Luus 2-12)
Result: South Africa women won by 154 runs and led the 5-match series 4-0.