Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 66 led Australia to a five-wicket win over Bangladesh, continuing their winning streak at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 here at the Basin Reserve on Friday.
Chasing 136 runs, Australia struggled for the first time in the World Cup. The World No. 1 team lost 5 wickets for just 72 runs before Beth Mooney took over. Salma Khatun single-handedly took out Australia’s top order to reduce the tournament favourites to 26/3. The Bangladesh spinner had Alyssa Healy caught in the deep for 15 and then produced a ripper to get the big wicket of captain Meg Lanning, who fell on zero.
Rachael Haynes scored 7 and Tahlia McGrath on 3 runs followed shortly after as Australia felt the pressure to crumble to 41/4. All-rounder Ashleigh Gardner came and went for a quickfire 13, but Mooney and Annabel Sutherland 26* held their nerves to help Australia cruise home.
Earlier in the day, Lata Mondal top-scored for Bangladesh with an excellent 33 as the Asian side struggled to cope with Australian spinners. Bangladesh actually had a good start to their innings with Murshida Khatun 12 and Sharmin Akhter 24 able to safely negotiate an Australia seam attack missing star quick Ellyse Perry because of injury. Bangladesh’s key batter Fargana Hoque was dismissed on 8 runs by Annabel Sutherland before Sharmin Akhter and skipper Nigar Sultana 7 fell to Jess Jonassen in quick succession to leave Bangladesh with a mountain to climb at 62/4.
Rumana Ahmed scored 15 and combined with Mondal for a 33-run stand and Khatun’s unbeaten 15 looked assured at the crease as Bangladesh pushed hard to increase the rate in the late stages of their innings.
Brief score: Bangladesh 135/6 in 43 overs (Sharmin Akhter 24, Lata Mondal 33; Jess Jonassen 2-13) vs Australia 136/5 in 32.1 overs (Beth Mooney 66*, Annabel Sutherland 26; Salma Khatun 3-23).