SHARJAH (WS News) – Nigar Sultana Joty’s Bangladesh beat Kathryn Bryce’s Scotland in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 opener in Sharjah on Thursday.
The victory for the de facto tournament hosts is their first win at a Women’s T20 World Cup since 2014 and gets their Group B campaign off to the perfect start.
But for Scotland, a lack of support for the excellent Sarah Bryce (49* from 52) saw them fall short on their tournament debut in the mid-afternoon heat in the United Arab Emirates.
The Tigeresses made regular inroads into the Scotland top order as they looked to defend their total of 119/7 in Sharjah.
The excellent Fahima Khatun picked up the first wicket when she lured Saskia Horley (8 off 12) down the track to set up a stumping for Nigar Sultana.
And a promising partnership between Scotland’s Bryce sisters came to an abrupt end when Marufa Akter cleaned up Kathryn Bruce (11 from 11) in the final over the powerplay.
Scotland set themselves up with a chance for the second half the chase, but an attempt to increase the scoring rate put paid to Ailsa Lister’s innings as she lofted a catch to Rabeya Khan off Ritu Moni for 11 off 12, leaving the Scots on 49/3 at the midway point of the second innings.
But wickets continued to fall as Scotland struggled to up the run rate in the face of a controlled Bangladesh bowling performance, most notably from the spinners.
While Sarah Bryce remained there was some hope for Scotland, but she couldn’t do it all on her own and ended unbeaten on 49* from 52, with none of the lower order able to find the boundary and put the Scots in contention.
They finished on 103/7, still 16 runs short of the target, missing out on what would have been a famous upset in their first-ever World Cup match.
Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first in the tournament opener against Scotland in Sharjah.
