GQEBERHA: Meg Lanning played a firm knock of unbeaten 48 to take Australia to a dominant eight-wicket win after Georgia Wareham and Darcie Brown stormed Bangladesh’s batting line in the Group A fixture of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on Tuesday.
Set to chase a paltry total of 108, Opener Alyssa Healy and skipper Lanning led the charge for Australia despite an early setback when Marufa Akter dismissed Beth Mooney in the third over.
Haley scored 37 from 36 balls before she fell prey to Shorna Akter in the 13th over when Australia were still 30 runs behind the target. Lanning, however, remained solid on the pitch and sailed her side through the chase in the 19th over with Ashleigh Gardner (19*) on the other end.
Earlier, Wareham ran through the middle order after quick Darcie Brown unsettled the opening pair inside the first four overs of the Bangladesh innings.
Bangladesh slumped to 11/2 in 3.1 overs after they opted to bat first as openers Shamima Sultana and Murshida Khatoon were dismissed early by Brown in her first spell.
Skipper Nigar Sultana, however, held the fort for Bangladesh but without any meaningful support from the rest of her teammates. She hit a valiant half-century while Wareham was scalping wickets at the other end.
The leggie found three wickets in the middle to disrupt the batting side despite Sultana’s lone heroics of 57 from 50 balls, laced with seven fours and a maximum. She was dismissed only in the 19th over by Gardner.
Megan Schutt then scalped a wicket in the final over to reduce Bangladesh to 107/7 in the 20 overs.
READ: Imad, Shoaib resist with fifties but Zalmi beat Kings in PSL 8 nail-biter
