It was a rather disappointing end to the series for the Bangladeshi women’s cricket team as they failed to win the T20 series despite having been set a gettable target of 86 runs in the deciding game.
Despite the loss, newly-appointed coach, Oshadee Weerasinghe was happy with his players’ performance. “We improved a lot in our bowling department. But we still need to make a lot of progress in batting and fielding,” he said.
The coach, whose next assignment is the T20 Asia Cup, to be held next month, aims to improve on the weaker aspects of the side. “We need to improve our batting technique. Most of the batsmen still struggle to clear the ropes (hit sixes). They need to be able to put their full power on to the shots,” said Weerasinghe.
Stats from the recently concluded series show that the national team consistently depended upon a few individuals to set a decent target. It was Lata Mondal in the ODI series and captain Salma Khatun in the T20 matches. “We need more batters. I can’t do much with a set of 20 players. We need to go on a talent hunt and find newer prospects for the team,” claimed the coach.
Echoing the coach’s sentiments, Salma Khatun believed that the team had learnt a lot from this series and hoped to perform better in the future.
“The South Africans are a more professional unit and they had to work hard to beat us. We have had our own individual achievements in this tour and I’m sure we will improve a lot more in the future,” she said.
The Bangladesh women’s cricket team’s next assignment will begin on October 22nd when they travel to Guangzhou, China to play the Asia Cup.
-With The Daily Star input
