Bangladesh women’s cricket team’s dreams of winning their first gold medal in the Asian Games got crushed on Sunday, when they got bundled out for a mere 51 against India in the semifinal and lost the match by eight wickets in Hangzhou, China.
Captain Nigar Sultana was the only batter to reach double figure mark, scoring 12 off 17 balls, in what was a horrendous batting display from Bangladesh at the Zhejiang University of Technology Cricket Field.
Medium pacer Pooja Vastrakar finished with career best figures of 4-17 and headlined a dominant showing from the Indian attack.
India lost just two wickets and reached the target in 8.2 overs with top-scorer Jemimah Rodriguez remaining unbeaten on 20 off 15 balls.
Marufa Akter and Fahima Khatun were the wicket-takers for Bangladesh.
Earlier, Bangladesh elected to bat first on a cloudy day in Hangzhou.
Vastrakar set the tone of the match in the first over by dismissing the Bangladesh openers Shathi Rani and Shamima Sultana for ducks.
The Bangladesh innings never recovered from the early setback as they kept losing wickets in regular successions and eventually got all out in 17.5 overs.
India never looked under pressure in the chase. India lost captain Smriti Mandhana for seven and Shafali Verma for 17, but Jemimah’s unbeaten knock booked them a spot in the final with 70 balls to spare.
Earlier, Bangladesh received a bye in the quarterfinal against Hong Kong owing to their higher ranking after the match got washed out.
The Bangladesh women’s cricket team have previously won a silver medal in the 2010 and 2018 editions of the Asian Games.
Bangladesh skipper Nigar had expressed the desire to play the final in the Hangzhou Games but instead her team got completely blown away by their India counterparts in the semifinal.
Bangladesh will now fight for the bronze medal on Monday against the losser of the 2nd semifinal between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.