Bangladesh women’s team captain Nigar Sultana was searching where the ball went after playing a shot against Inoka Ranaweera. She wanted to hit the left-arm spinner for a boundary through mid-wicket. But she mistimed the shot and the ball went up in the air. The wicketkeeper took the easy catch.
After the dismissal, one could hardly look at Nigar. Tears welled up in her eyes as she was walking back to the dressing room. At least, that’s what it looked like when she wiped her eyes from inside the helmet. The disappointment of failing to chase 41 runs in seven overs made her emotional.
The captain didn’t return to the dressing room after her dismissal. She stayed at the dugout at the edge of the boundary ropes for almost 15 minutes. From there, she saw Bangladesh suffer a three-run defeat against Sri Lanka.
Not just Nigar, experienced Jahanara Alam could also hardly hide her emotions after the defeat. In the post-match press-conference when she was asked about her completing 100 wickets in international cricket, Jahanara, with tears welling up in her eyes, said, “I don’t keep count of my stats. I didn’t even know I have completed 100 wickets. It felt a little good but I’m feeling more sad than happy.”
She explained the reason behind her sadness, “We are playing at home, we are the defending champions. If for some reason we don’t make it to the semifinal, then everyone in the team will feel terrible.”
But a professional cricketer’s life is bound to go through ups and downs. Jahanara wants to accept what happened and move on, “Every cricketer’s life goes through ups and downs. The same goes for me. A cricketer doesn’t rise to the top at once. Going through ups and downs is part of the life of a professional cricketer. Whenever I get the opportunity, whenever my team needs me, I will try my utmost to contribute to the team.”
However, on Monday, Jahanara had to sit at the dugout and see the procession of batters going to the middle and promptly return after getting out. When she finally got to the crease, the fate of the match was already decided before she could face a single ball.
At the end of the match, Jahanara was handed the responsibility by the team to explain the batting collapse to the press. She said, “The target wasn’t too big. The required rate was a run-a-ball. We could’ve progressed simply by taking singles and twos regularly. We needed to take more singles. We should’ve done that from the start of the innings. At the final stages, when the required rate doubled, we didn’t go for big shots, instead took singles. They also bowled well.”
The Bangladesh women’s team has suffered a similar defeat in the past. Jahanara, herself, reminded everyone of that defeat, “In 2014, we suffered a similar unbelievable defeat against Pakistan. We scored 42 runs off 43 balls. Today’s (Monday) match was important for us. We are all disappointed after losing the match.”