Nigar strives for perfection

Bangladesh women's cricket team added another triumph in what has been an eventful year for them when they defeated South Africa in the first Twenty20 of the three-match series in Benoni on Sunday.

But captain Nigar Sultana, who had led the team in white-ball series wins at home against Pakistan, a bronze medal in the Asian Games and a drawn ODI series against India at home earlier this year, was far from satisfied with her team as she is still focused on areas of improvement.

"We need to play better in the next matches. It's not like we have played really well in this game. We have made many mistakes. We have to fix those mistakes, only then can we do even better," the captain said at the post-match press conference on Sunday.

The wicketkeeper-batter was particularly unhappy with the number of dot balls her team played during batting, which kept them from putting up an even bigger total on the board.

"We lacked in some departments -- we played around 40 (55) dots in our batting. We need to reduce that, the bowlers need to make less mistakes and express themselves even better," said Nigar.

The Bangladesh captain had an excellent match as a batter and in leading the side. With the bat, she scored an unbeaten 21-ball 34 which helped the team set up a 150-run target. She also expertly handled her bowling options after following the injury to pacer Marufa Akter, who could only bowl two overs. Her gamble on 16-year-old Shorna Akter also paid dividends as the leg-spinner claimed 5-28 and took the team to a 13-run win.

Bangladesh, although, had the advantage of facing a South Africa side which was without most of their frontline bowlers due to injury and star batter Marizanne Kapp, who missed the match for her stint in the Women's Big Bash.

But Nigar and Co did well to capitalise on the hosts' weaknesses in the first match and have a chance to clinch a maiden series win over the opponents in any format in the next two matches on December 6 and 8.