Australia losses ‘warning sign ahead of WC’

Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty was left a frustrated figure after her side succumbed to an eight-wicket defeat in the third and final ODI against Australia in Mirpur yesterday, leading to the world champions attaining a clean sweep of the series in their maiden Bangladesh tour.

The visitors cut through Bangladesh's home advantage factor to reveal many deficiencies, and the biggest factor behind the outcome for the Bangladesh skipper was how the Tigresses could not recover from the earlier defeats in the series.

"I am totally surprised because we have not played this kind of cricket in the last six months. You can accept mistakes in one or two areas, but the whole team played differently; and that put us on the back foot. We could not perform 10 percent close to our ability," Joty said at the post-match press conference.

Opting to bowl, the Alyssa Healy-led side were on point from the onset. Standout bowler Kim Garth claimed three wickets, conceding 11 runs from seven overs, as Bangladesh were skittled out for 89 -- producing a worse display than the first two ODIs -- before the seven-time world champions chased down the target inside 19 overs.

Joty believes that they were behind mentally after the first loss. "When we got out below 100 runs in the opening game, from that point, everyone was thinking that it would be tough for us; and it got into our heads," she said.

The Tigresses bagged important wins recently, against India and Pakistan at home, while also recording first away T20I and ODI wins in South Africa. Australia, however, proved to be a different beast.

"We need to do better in certain areas -- and that is good for us -- because this is a warning sign ahead of the [T20] World Cup and we cannot proceed this way… otherwise we will have the same result against a big team," Joty concluded.