Tigresses 'happy with batting' despite big defeat

Bangladesh slumped to a 10-wicket defeat in the first T20I against Australia women's team yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, despite putting on a better show with the bat.

The Tigresses' head coach Hashan Tillakaratne was happy with the recovery work after losing early wickets but said there were areas that needed to be worked on.

Bangladesh lost two wickets for two runs inside the first two overs before Murshida Khatun, who struck 20 off 27, and skipper Nigar Sultana Joty strung together a 57-run stand for the third-wicket. Joty and Fahima Khatun then managed a 60-run stand as Bangladesh reached 126 for four, with Joty unbeaten on 63 off 64 deliveries.

Bangladesh did not cross the 100-run threshold in any of the three ODIs against Australia earlier during the tour, and Hashan lauded the intent.

"Firstly, I thought we were 15-20 runs short. We played about 50 dot balls. Apart from that I am happy with the batting today, especially the way Joty batted," he said.

But with fifty dot balls in the innings, there was a missing intent required in T20Is. Australia openers showed their intent in chasing down the target in 13 overs.

"This is a different format and if we are playing on a very good track, we could have shown a bit of intent in the first six overs. But I think the recovery was very good when they put up 60-70 runs for the third wicket," Hashan said.

"I'm very happy with Joty's batting and Fahima's batting, especially how they batted together and took a few calculated risks at the right time," he added.