Bangladesh national women鈥檚 team captain Nigar Sultana Joty blamed the top-order鈥檚 poor batting performance, as they suffered a crushing 100-run defeat to New Zealand in Guwahati in the World Cup on Friday.聽
Chasing 227, Bangladesh鈥檚 reply never got out of first gear as their top five batters failed to reach double figures. It took them 15 overs to find their first boundary.
Joty faced 28 deliveries to score only four runs before miscuing a shot.聽
鈥榃e are not being consistent as a batting unit. When you chase 200-plus, and the top order does not click, it is difficult to chase this sort of target,鈥� admitted Joty after their second defeat in three matches.聽
Bangladesh entered the match with a lot of confidence after giving England a real scare. They had New Zealand at 38-3 before captain Sophie Devine shared a 112-run partnership with Brooke Halliday, who top-scored with 69.
鈥業nitially, we bowled really well. What we expected from Marufa, we did not get today. Other bowlers bowled wonderfully,鈥� said Joty.聽
鈥楢ll the spinners have done really well. Till the 30th over, we were in control, but after that, they kept playing their shots, and we leaked boundaries,鈥� she added.聽
Bangladesh then folded tamely with leg-spinner Fahima Khatun waging a lone battle. She top-scored with 34 to lift them from 33-6.聽
Joty also said that their lack of experience in terms of facing big teams played a part in their crushing defeat.聽
鈥榃e just get to play top sides when we play ICC events. Otherwise, we are not playing against them. We have a lack of experience there. We wanted to play our normal game, but we could not capitalise,鈥� she said.聽聽
Rabeya Khan, who scored 25 while coming at nine, said that runs from the lower order became useless if the top order didn鈥檛 click.聽
鈥楬onestly, it鈥檚 better to ask the batsmen themselves why this is happening. You have to ask them, because if the top order doesn鈥檛 score runs, whatever the lower order does becomes useless,鈥� she said.聽
Bangladesh face South Africa on October 13 in their next match in Visakhapatnam. Their next fixture is against Australia at the same venue before taking on Sri Lanka and India in Mumbai.