At the halfway stage in the game, England would have fancied a comprehensive victory. Chasing 179 runs under lights against Bangladesh would not have seemed like a big deal. But the Nigar Sultana-led side had shown in their opening match against Pakistan that their bowling attack could be a handful against most teams in the competition.
On Tuesday, they gave more evidence of that prowess by putting in a spirited effort in their defence of 178 runs at Guwahati. On a spin-friendly pitch, the quartet of Fatima Khatun, Rabeya Khan, Shorna Akter and Shanijda Maghla claimed 4/112 to almost pull off a sensational win.
But they were denied by Heather Knight, who brought all her experience into play, staying unbeaten on 79 off 111 balls and putting on 79 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket with Charlie Dean to complete a nervy four-wicket win in the Women’s World Cup.
The tone with the ball for Bangladesh was once again set by medium pacer Marufa Akter. She had stung Pakistan early on Friday and showed that it was no fluke by dismissing Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont lbw for 1 and 13 respectively with her sharp in-swingers. Her early strikes gave Bangladesh hope, and the onus fell on former captain Knight and current skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt to calm the nerves.
But the experienced Fatima caused panic in the English ranks, dismissing the latter and Sophie Dunkley in the 19th over to bring the match back on an even keel.
The 32-year-old Bangladesh bowler then put her team in front by removing Emma Lamb for one, and when Shanjida Meghla removed Alice Capsey for 20, England were staring at a creek without a paddle at 103/6.
Knight rides her luck
England’s hopes now rested on Knight’s shoulders. The 2017 World Cup-winning captain survived as many as three close calls in her innings. The first was a caught-behind appeal in the third over when she was on nought. The second was an LBW shout in the seventh, when her score was eight, that was given out on the field but overturned on review.
The third was perhaps the most fortuitous escape. Fatima delivered a flighted delivery on the third ball of the 15th over, and Knight, on 13 then, was beaten by the loop and chipped it to Shorna to take a low catch to the right of extra cover. The umpires went upstairs to check the legality of the catch, and third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan ruled that the ball had touched the turf, much to Bangladesh’s disappointment.
Knight proceeded to guide her team to their second successive victory in the tournament, but the result was set up by the England bowlers. After Sciver-Brunt called it right at the toss, their spinners combined to bowl 37.4 overs, with Sophie Ecclestone emerging as the pick of the lot with figures of 3/24 in 10 overs.
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Bangladesh crawl with the bat
On a pitch that was turning but by no means unplayable, the Bangladesh batters showed very little intent to try and get to a score that would have really tested England. A significant number of deliveries were dead-batted, and there was barely an attempt to take the aerial route. Until Rabeya Khan, who walked out at number nine in the 44th over and used the sweep shot and the long handle to score an unbeaten 43 runs off 27 balls, Bangladesh were staring at a score much smaller than what they eventually ended up with.
Sobhana Mostary remained defiant at her end, registering her maiden international half-century. But she, too, could not lift the scoring rate and fell for 60 off 108 balls in the 47th over. Ritu Moni, who was drafted into the playing XI in place of Nishita Akter Nishi, had a particularly painful stay at the crease. The right-hander took 18 balls to get off the mark before being dismissed for five off 36 balls.
Bangladesh’s lack of intent against spin in the middle overs gave England skipper Sciver-Brunt so much confidence that she kept the spinners on for the entirety of the final 12.4 overs. Whether such an approach would work against tougher opposition remains to be seen, but it did the job on Tuesday.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 178 all out in 49.4 overs (Mostary 60, Rabeya Khan 43; Ecclestone 3/24) lost to England 182/6 in 46.1 overs (Knight 79 not out, Dean 27 not out; Fatima Khatun 3/16) by four wickets.
