Bangladesh’s bowlers announced themselves at the Women’s World Cup by dismissing Pakistan for just 129 on a good batting surface in Colombo. Led by sole seamer Marufa Akter and backed by five spinners, the attack tested Pakistan with swing and spin, exposing poor shot selection from a team that had come through the qualifiers unbeaten.

After choosing to bat first, Pakistan will be disappointed with their efforts which saw only two batters – Rameen Shamim and Fatima Sana – get past 20 and a highest partnership of 42. Bangladesh, who have not played any competitive cricket since the qualifiers in April, showed no signs of rustiness. They bowled to good plans, fielded well and took their chances and will have high hopes of winning their second World Cup game after beating Pakistan in 2022.

A visibly more conditioned Marufa found swing immediately and success soon after. She finished the opening over with two wickets in two balls. The first, pitched outside off and shaped back into Omaima Sohail, who stayed on the back foot, left a gap between bat and pad and was bowled. The second, even better, hooped in and took Sidra Amin’s inside-edge on its way to leg stump. It was Amin’s first golden duck in ODIs, and first since 2019. Left-handed Muneeba Ali faced Marufa’s hat-trick ball at the start of the next over, and it angled in and straightened on her but she was able to keep it out, only to be beaten next ball.

At the other end, the tournament’s youngest player, offspinner Nishita Akter took the other new ball. The first boundary came off her, when Muneeba clipped Nishita fine and then swept her away to deep backward-square. The sweep quickly became Pakistan’s go-to shot as they scored 20 of their first 45 runs with it.

That was partly due to Bangladesh’s chosen attack: just one seamer in Marufa and four spinners in operation. Left-arm spinner Nahida Akter was introduced in the eighth over, with Muneeba and Shamim, batting at No.4 for the first time, starting to settle. Nahida removed both. Muneeba chased a wide Nahida delivery and cut it to Nishita at point, ending the third-wicket partnership at 42. In Nahida’s next over, she tossed it up to Shamim, who chipped it straight back for the simplest of return catches. Pakistan were 47 for 4 in the 14th over.

Aliya Riaz and Sidra Nawaz launched a mini counterattack when Aliya brought up the team’s fifty with a slash through backward point and Nawaz hit back-to-back boundaries off Fahima Khatun. But Nawaz’s stay at the crease was troubled. She was given out lbw to Fahima on 0 and reviewed. UltraEdge showed she had hit the ball. Three overs later, Nawaz was given not out off Rabeya Khan and Bangladesh reviewed a close call. Replays showed the ball close to both the bat and the pad as it spun back in and third umpire N Janani ruled it had hit the pad first. Nawaz was out for 15.

Sana came in at No.7 and hit the sixth ball she faced for four. She was the only batter to get Marufa to the boundary, when she creamed her through point. But Bangladesh soon applied the squeeze again. Pakistan scored six runs off the next 24 balls and pressure told: Aliya tried to hit Nishita over long-off but didn’t get enough on it and Marufa ran in from the rope to take a good catch. Sana didn’t last much longer. Two overs later, she played down the wrong line against Fahima, was hit on the front pad and given out. Sana reviewed immediately, thinking both bat and pad were close to the ball, but umpire Janani upheld the on-field decision.

Legspinner Shorna Akter found bounce and turn and had Natalia Pervaiz caught behind in her first over. Pakistan were in danger of being bowled out inside 35 overs. They avoided that, but only just and still lost their ninth wicket in bizarre fashion. Nashra Sandhu left a full ball from Shorna and as her bat came down, she struck her own stumps to become only the second batter to be dismissed hit wicket in Women’s World Cups.

No runs were scored off Shorna’s first three overs before Diana Baig swept her for four but the fun was short lived. Sadia Iqbal holed out to mid-on halfway through the 39th over to end the innings with 69 balls remaining. Shorna’s 3 for 5 was her career-best.

Brief scores:
Pakistan Women  129 in 38.3 overs  (Rameen Shamim 23, Fatima Sana 22,; Shorna Akter  3-05, Nahida Akter 2-19, Marufa Akter 2-31) vs Bangladesh Women