Bengal tigress in the brave tour to Pakistan may have lost all matches must they earned lot of respect and honor from Pakistan cricket community.

In cricketing terms this was white wash. But it was not that they were overwhelmed. Excepting the last match they were not outplayed and even created situation of winning the first ODI.

Tigress definitely bowled and fielded admirably. I would rather say they bowled and fielded better on occasions putting Pakistani girls under pressure.

Pakistani girls were hardly comfortable against the quality bowling and accurate fielding. But batting lacked consistency and skill. The team received the highest security attention usually reserved for state guests and shown exemplary hospitality. This experience will serve a good lesson for our women who hardly get opportunities for playing international competitive cricket.

We must admire with whatever little they got they did not let us completely down.  We are sure when other international teams hesitate and even majority of Bangladeshi cricket admirers were unsure about security and safety of the team, BCB took brave decision. The girls were unnerved. Hope PCB will also reciprocate this brave gesture of BCB and would let their players play in BCB arranged BPL soon.

Coming back to the matches, the T20s and first ODI was evenly matched. One player Bismah Maroof single handedly batted her team to win most matches. Pakistani batsmen could hardly take liberty against very intelligent and accurate tigress bowling.

Most of the Bangladeshi batsmen failed to do justice to their reputation. We thought they had limited range of strokes. They could not dab and deflect, play into the gaps, take sharp singles or convert singles to doubles. Few good strokes went straight to the fielders. Batsmen lacked temperament and panicked a little bit at the end of the innings.

In both T20s and first ODI Pakistanis were restricted to chase able targets. But Bangladesh lost wickets regularly at crunch times and lost matches. Perhaps more matches and better batting practices would improve. Players looked a fatigued at the last stage of each match. Rumana produced a great innings. If only she was not fatigued she could have own the match. Salma failed in batting in every match. That was also among reasons that Bangladesh could not compete well.

We must not have any hesitation in admitting that Pakistan is a better team in matter of quality and experience. I am sure team Manager Shafiqul Huq Heera and players would state that Pakistani players enjoy better training and other playing facilities.

It is true tigress got whitewashed. But under no circumstances one must conclude that they were dismayed or disgraced. It was great to know that Bangladeshi girls got great VVIP attention and respect in Pakistan. This cricket tour will work as eye breaker and other teams will venture playing in Pakistan.

Some media (print and social) tried to make fuss over Salma’s uttering of only a few Urdu words in an interview. We have heard all her interviews. She spoke eloquently in Bangla and team manager translated. Momentarily she spoke some Urdu words which cannot be treated as a huge mistake. I am sure if any Pakistani speaks Bangla in Bangladesh no Pakistani media will even take any notice of it.

A player must be judged by his/her playing ability. We think Bengal tigress conducted very well on and off the field in Pakistan.  Unfortunately South African ladies are not coming on their scheduled tour. Bangladesh could play in uncertain Pakistan but South Africans hesitate playing in secure Bangladesh. Our girls could not apply their lessons they learnt from their rare cricket tour abroad and experience of international cricket after a while. BCB should try to organize a tri-nation or four-nation (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) women’s T20 tournament in Bangladesh soon.

BDST: 1215 HRS, OCT 08, 2015
SR/SMS