At the Women’s T20 Qualifier in the Netherlands, the PNG Lewas’ 84 was not enough for qualifying favourites Bangladesh, who lost just two wickets in their successful run-chase.
At the VRA Cricket Ground in Amstelveen (in Amsterdam), Bangladesh Captain Salma Khatun won the toss and elected to bowl first.
The decision of the Bangladesh captain paid off as early as the 1st ball of the second over as Sibona Jimmy fell for just 1 run.
She was joined by Brenda Tau an over later, for the same score and the City Pharmacy PNG Lewas were in trouble from the start at 2-2.
Wickets continued to tumble, and a slow run rate left PNG in search of inspiration at 45/5 after 15 overs.
Kopi John held anchor, notching 15 from 32 before Panna Ghosh (2/15) cleaned her up. Pauke Siaka (5) also fell to Ghosh, while Kaia Arua (4) fell cheaply at the hands of Rumana Ahmed (1/12).
PNG did provide some valiant resistance though, as an unbeaten 23 from Tanya Ruma and an exciting cameo of 27 from Veru Frank pushed the underdogs to a relatively reasonable effort of 84 given their poor start.
Only 5 boundaries is not good enough to win a T20 match and the City Pharmacy PNG Lewas will know this and hope to shake it off soon enough, as they play UAE on July 9th at the same time and place.
(Picture: ICC)