'We are going through a tough time right now' - Nigar Sultana reveals squad's mood after loss in third T20I against India

The third T20I between Bangladesh Women and India Women saw the visitors take an unassailable 0-3 lead at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, winning the third T20I of the five-match series by seven wickets with nine deliveries to spare.

Bangladeshi skipper, Nigar Sultana, expressed her thoughts on the match as well as the past few months for her team during the post-match presentation. She referred to the bright start Bangladesh Women got off to in the powerplay, their best in the series (44/0). Dilara Akter, in particular, was looking in fine nick as she had a couple of catches dropped in the fifth and sixth over, respectively, to provide a good platform for Bangladesh to capitalize on. Sultana also pointed out that a couple of wickets of herself and Fahima Khatun following one another off successive deliveries didn't help her team's cause, as well as the hosts only manage to muster 31 runs in the last six overs of the innings. 

"We started well in the powerplay, and then we started to lose wickets back-to-back. Also, we could not finish well post the 15th over," Joty said at the post-match presentation.

She further added that her team had made considerable progress in the past six months, alluding to the white-ball format in particular, where her side played competitively against the quality of the likes of South Africa Women and Australia Women, irrespective of the results drawn out. The wicketkeeper-batter also confessed that with this being Bangladesh Women's seventh consecutive loss as far as the shortest format is concerned, they were undergoing a difficult phase at the moment. However, she insisted that despite recurrent setbacks, her team should keep their cool, be optimistic for the future, and be inclined towards being process-oriented.

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"This team has been doing well for the last six months and we are going through a tough time right now. Still, I think we should keep ourselves calm, believe in ourselves, and focus on the process," added Sultana.

The bowlers are doing well but the batting department is letting us down: Sultana

Sultana shed light on the stark difference in the bowling and batting department, respectively, with her praising the bowlers for their resoluteness and tenacity in different stages of the game, but was critical of the batting department, which hasn't been up to the mark, putting up scores of 126, 103, 78, 101, 119, and 117 in their previous T20Is since the advent of 2024. Stressing on the way they leaked 59 in the powerplay despite the total they were defending to be fairly modest, she remarked that that was a source of worry. However, she credited the way her bowlers came back post powerplay, picking up three wickets and conceding only 62 runs in 75 deliveries, albeit in a losing endeavour.   

"The bowlers are doing well but the batting department is letting us down. Still, the way we bowled in the Powerplay was a matter of concern. After powerplay, we bowled really well. Nahida [Akter] and the other bowlers made a good comeback at the end of the innings," concluded Sultana.