
Following their spirited show against England, a confident Bangladesh will take on New Zealand in their third group fixture of the ICC Women’s World Cup at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati today.
The match is scheduled at 3:30pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Bangladesh beat Pakistan by seven wickets before giving a real scare to the 2017 champions, England, in their previous match.
New Zealand, on the other hand, lost their first two matches to Australia and South Africa by 89 runs and six wickets, respectively.
Bangladesh vice-captain Nahida Akter vowed to carry on their good performance against England.
‘We played excellent cricket in our last match. I think we did really well as a bowling department. The focus will be the same,’ said Nahida ahead of their important clash.
However, Nahida also said that they were a few runs short in the last match against the English side.
‘We were 20-30 runs short in the last match given the condition of the wickets. But as a teammate, I believe that the batters will do well in the next match,’ she said.
‘I think the batters we have got—from [Nigar Sultana] Joty apu to Farzana [Haque], everyone is good. They might not have performed in a match, but we have still got five matches. I think they will come back soon,’ she added.
Bangladesh will have the benefit of playing at the same venue, while New Zealand played their first two matches in Indore.
But Nahida didn’t hope for anything easy.
‘Each match is challenging in the World Cup. There’s nothing easy. There will always be tough moments; no team will give away anything easy. We are preparing accordingly,’ she said.
‘The way we played the last match, if we can play slightly better, then something good is coming,’ she added.
New Zealand, on the other hand, will have to be wary of the spin-heavy Bangladesh.
‘We know with Bangladesh, I think apart from the opening bowler, they’re a spin-heavy attack, and they’ve had a lot of teams in trouble as well throughout this tournament we’ve seen,’ said all-rounder Amelia Kerr.
‘So, I think being really disciplined with the bat, you have to sum up conditions really quickly and then work out what your best game plan is,’ she added.
Records, however, are with New Zealand, as they won on both occasions when the two sides previously met in the 50-over format in 2022. One of those was in the World Cup that year.