Bangladesh women miss out on gold

It was again a case of so close yet so far for Salma Khatun and her troop as the Bangladesh women narrowly missed the gold medal in the 17th Asian Games Twenty20 cricket tournament after losing by a mere four runs in a closely-fought final against defending champions Pakistan. At the Yeonhui cricket ground in Incheon, South Korea, the ladies in Red and Green had to be content with a silver, Bangladesh’s first medal in the 17th edition of the Asiad.

Pakistan were the same side who denied Bangladesh a gold medal in the previous Asian Games in Guangzhou, China four years ago but that time the margin of defeat was a convincing 10-wicket loss. However, this time the Bangladesh women would be filled with agony as they came tantalisingly close before conceding a four-run defeat according to the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Requiring seven runs to win from the final over of their chase with four wickets intact, Bangladesh could manage just two runs for the loss of three wickets in pursuit of their revised target of 43 runs from seven overs. Bangladesh ended up on 38/9 in the rain-affected encounter.

Bangladesh, however, have only themselves to blame as they were well and truly on their way to the gold medal, coasting inside the fifth over on 30/2 before a horrible batting collapse saw them lose their next seven wickets for just eight runs.

With 10 runs each, Rumana Ahmed and Farzana Haque were the top run-getters for Bangladesh as no other batters were able to reach double figures.

Pakistan skipper Sana Mir had earlier won the toss and elected to bat but struggled right from the onset as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Seamer Jahanara Alam dismissed opener Javeria Khan (six) in the third over before removing the other opening batter Marina Iqbal (14) as the Bangladeshi bowlers kept things tight. Pakistan posted 97/6 in their allotted 20 overs before rain interrupted Bangladesh’s innings.

Bismah Maroof was the top-scorer with 24 runs while Nain Abidi chipped in with 18. Rumana picked up 2/13 from her four overs while Jahanara, Salma and Fahima Khatun took a wicket each for Bangladesh.

Following the end of the gold-medal clash, Bangladesh captain Salma blamed the batters. “If our batters had played sensibly then we would have won the match as it was not a difficult target. It was due to our mistakes that we missed the opportunity to clinch the gold medal.”