Australia Women vs Bangladesh Women Prediction: Australians are relentless

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup began with a bang when underdogs Sri Lanka defeated South Africa and threw their group in frenzy. Thus, you never know if an upset is around the corner and can come out of nowhere. The loss can also take the confidence out of a team or increase their focus, but it hurts a lot anyway. Moving on to the matter of losses, Australia doesn’t look interested in losses and the best cricket team in the world takes on Bangladesh.

Another day, another Australian masterclass. To be frank, they didn’t even play their best game in terms of batting and still ended up with a humungous margin of 97 runs against New Zealand. Batting-wise, they collected 173 runs. Alyssa Healy made a sumptuous 55 runs off 38 balls. Meg Lanning looked in ominous touch before getting out on 41 runs off 33 balls whereas Ellyse Perry dealt the decisive blow, having scored 40 runs in 22 balls. These three innings helped the team overcome a wobbly effort.

However, in terms of bowling, there were no wobbles at any point. Megan Schutt’s straight line and length accounted for ducks by Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates, the two best batters alongside Amelie Kerr. From there on, the required rate kept soaring and then Ashleigh Gardner gave the finishing touch with five wickets for 12 runs performance to complete another Aussie masterclass. Seriously, against a team where eight to nine players can both bat and ball, who is going to compete?

Bangladesh comes into this contest after a disappointing seven-wicket loss against Sri Lanka. The team began well as Shamima Sultana and Sobhana Mostary got off to a rollicking start, taking advantage of the wide line. Both were dismissed in their 20s but the situation got dire once skipper Nigar Sultana was also out in her 20s, the score before Nigar’s dismissal read 95-3(15.1 Overs). Bangladesh couldn’t get a big finish from there and they could also reach 126 runs.

Bowling-wise, Bangladesh got off to an electric start and young Marufa Akter was all over Sri Lanka. She got the big wicket of Chamari Athapaththy who had scored 68 in the upset win. She also took out Vishmi Gunaratne and Anushka Sanjeevani, reducing the team to three wickets for 25 runs. The game looked firmly in Bangladesh’s grip but then opener Harshita Samarawickrama got in a big partnership along with Nikalshi de Silva, finding a great balance between running between the wickets and boundaries. They had an unbeaten partnership of 104 runs to seal the deal.

• Expected Leading Wicket-Takers: Darcie Brown(2+ Wickets), Ashleigh Garnder(2+ Wickets);
• Expected Leading Run-Scorers: Beth Mooney(33+ Runs), Meg Lanning(31+ Runs).

The Australian women are just unstoppable and there is little to no chance of a Bangladesh win here. Although nothing is certain in the sporting world, an Australian win has been certain in Women’s cricket for a long time now. Why would you bet against a squad that can win on even its average day? That’s why I opt for Australia to win where each player is a match-winner.