Bangladesh Women vs Sri Lanka Women Prediction: Starry-eyed Lankans take on hopeful Bangladesh

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup marks another significant milestone in the cricketing world and the tournament has brought some amazing results. The pressure of playing at home got to South Africa and they ended up losing to Sri Lanka in the opener, which is one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament. The revved-up Sri Lanka is going to take on Bangladesh here.

Sri Lanka came into the game as massive underdogs but ended up with a last-over win by three runs. They found great touch from the out-of-form Chamari Athapaththu who once again proved that she saves her best for big tournaments. She smoked 68 runs in 50 balls, curling her arms repeatedly to slash the ball, finding boundaries mostly due to her intent. She received a great boost from 17-year-old Vishmi Gunaratne, who ended up with 35 runs in 34 balls. An 86 runs partnership between these two pushed the score to 129.

The Sri Lankan bowlers started with a lot of control and after dismissing Tazmin Brits at a score of 29, there was no stopping them. Inoka Ranaweera was the pick of the bowlers, having snaffled the wickets of Marizanee Kapp, Laura Woolvardt, and Sune Luus, perhaps the three best batters for the team. As the asking rate climbed, the weakened middle order for the South Africans fell to the disciplined bowling by Lankan spinners and they defended 20 runs from the last two overs successfully. Oshida Ranasinghe took two wickets for 20 runs in her four overs whereas Ranaweera finished with 3 for 18. The spinners including Sugandika Kumari took all eight wickets and there was a run-out.

Like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh doesn’t come with a lot of expectations and even a single win will be considered a big deal for them. They have a young team and skipper Nigar Sultana has been their most reliable run-getter for them. Shamima Sultana who opens with Murshida Khatun brings great experience but she will need a big pump first up. Except for Ritu Moni and Nigar, the middle order is inexperienced and a collapse is always on the cards in such cases.

Bowling-wise, the team has a lot of experience. Seamer Jahanara Alam has been playing for many years/ Off-break bowler Salma Khatun is their most consistent wicket-taker while young seamer Marufa Akter’s ability to move the ball can be utilized well on the South African tracks. Bangladesh hasn’t produced encouraging results in big tournaments but this will be yet another crucial experience for a team that is now fielding multiple young players.

• Expected Highest run-scorers: Chamari Athapaththu(36+ Runs), Nigar Sultana(24+ Runs);
• Expected Leading Wicket-takers: Inoka Ranaweera(2+ Wickets), Kavisha Dilhari(2+ wickets).

The Sri Lankans will have their tails up after downing the hosts whereas Bangladesh may have their best shot at victory in this game. Batting-wise, the Lankans have no depth as such but Chamari and Vishma may be a tough pair to deal with because of how well they can complement each other. I’d expect the Lankans to come on top here.