18 March - Tauranga - Bangladesh Captain Nigar Sultana post-match press conference
Reporter: Unlucky today. Looking at your results so far in the tournament, you guys have pushed every single team you've played against - unfortunately didn't get the win today. How do you assess your tournament so far being debutantes in your first appearance?
Nigar: I guess how we started our tournament it was brilliant - I guess South Africa how our bowlers did well that time and today's match as well, because the bowlers bowled really well today and if I have to say about Nahida, she fought really well last till then. So I think the lack of building partnership cost us very much today. So if we could bat till the end, at least one top order batter, that result might be different.
Reporter: And just looking at the bowling performance, you obviously got into a really good position with West Indies at 70 for seven. Do you feel like you let them get away to put on 140 in the end?
Nigar: We were planning like - we have seem two last matches here. So we seen that the spinners are dominating here. So we were just planning to do the same thing and the bowlers did really well today to keep the West Indies batters in a decent total is incredible, and I think if we could build up the partnership in the batting, so it could be different.
Reporter: The West Indies were 70 for seven at one point and in the last 15 overs they added another 70 runs. Do you think that was a chance missed and what was the talk at the halfway stage? In the dressing room?
Nigar: I guess in a cricket match, you know that somehow maybe teams give up and sometimes they build a partnership. It happened so but I think from the beginning we put up a pressure on them but in the last they put up a very good score in the last 15 overs, but we need to work on that. I guess even though they didn't get any chance actually, but still we bowled were very bad balls, few bad balls. So, we wanted to work on that and I guess 140 was a decent total, at least we could chase down.
Reporter: And while chasing is dot balls a concern for you because we saw you getting partnerships in terms of balls faced, but were unable to rotate strike - is that something you will be talking about - You are focusing on?
Nigar: Obviously, I know the openers gave us the best start from the last three matches. So maybe Shamima - fell down today but the back to back wicket it cost us very much and I think if we could build up two partnership at least 20-20 run partnership so the result might be different. And we need to work on our strike rotation. Obviously we took a lot of balls for starting - started off the innings and even though in the middle of the overs when we need to take singles or rotating our striker - we wasn’t there.
Reporter: My first question was like I just wanted your thoughts Nahida because she's been bowling really well. She might not have the wickets to show for it but she's bowled in the power play, she's bowled in the difficult overs and even today she bowled well and then contributed with the bat as well. Well, so your thoughts on her?
And the second question is your next match is against India a team that you've played quite often in the past, you've defeated them also in T20. So what are your expectations from that match?
Nigar: if I want to talk about Nahida, I think she's a brilliant bowler and I wanted to use her in three or four spells sometimes so and whenever I give her the ball - she's really doing well. And today, she's doing the same and I know she's capable of batting and she did really well today and I think if she could play till the end, maybe the result could be different. And obviously the next matchup against India we wanted to bounce back because we know the bowlers have done very well. The last three matches and we wanted to bat as a batting unit.
Bappy: Jyoti, Hard luck again. I mean, we lost after reaching even so close. What was your batting plan when you were given a target of 140 runs? That is the first question.
Nigar: We actually had a plan to maintain the process as we always try to play in these wickets like to play by dividing it into10 overs. Although there were fewer runs on the board, we wanted to make 140 runs in as few overs as we could following our process, like to finish it within 30-35 overs. Because the wicket was slow, I think if we play slow in such a low-scoring match then there comes a lot of pressure at the end. So I said in the dressing room that we will maintain our process and play in such a way so that we can finish the game as soon as possible.
Bappy: But by looking at your approach, it didn't seem like you wanted to finish the game anytime soon. Another thing is, they were setting some traps for you in the field and you were giving the catch or playing the ball there, did you notice it or did you somehow ignore it?
Nigar: I think the situation turned out like that. We had to slow it down after losing many early wickets because you have to understand when to turn on the pace to turn off in the innings. So at that moment, in fact, if we were playing the game with pace on again, maybe the game would have ended faster. So based on the wicket condition and match situation, maybe we slowed down our game so that we could build up a partnership. We took some more time at that time to build up a partnership. Somehow I think, yes, If you're talking about the fielding set-up, it was our lacking (shortcoming) that we gave away wickets in that fielding set-up. We had to bat better than this against their bowling but somehow we couldn't do that.
Bappy: Thank you, Jyoti. Best of luck for the next few matches. [Thank you.]
Ankush: Nigger, the West Indies are, in fact, one of the strongest teams in women's cricket. Although your appearance is saying it all, if you can please tell us what is your state of mind and how frustrated you all are after this match at the team camp?
Nigar: Of course, there will be disappointment, you will see that these matches are very close matches. And we had a great opportunity to take two more points, and I think a great opportunity has been missed. It is natural for everyone to be upset about this. Because restricting a team like West Indies by so few runs and losing after coming so close, it's hard to accept. And Nahida fought so well till the end that if one batter would have supported her then the result might have been different in the end. I think if I had played in the end where I tried to build up a partnership by taking some time and I tried to control the match. But somehow at that place I also became slow in the wicket which caused a lot of damage to Bangladesh, I think. So, in the next matches, we will try to overcome these issues and perform better.
Ankush: There were 2 wickets for 60 runs, you and Farzana were batting and you were batting well. In fact, three wickets fell in that place. So do you think that was actually the turning point in the match, although Nahida played well later? But if you had to say the turning point, what would you say about that event?
Nigar: Of course. I would say that back-to-back wickets always create pressure for a team. So, I think the back-to-back wickets have really hurt us more today. If we could have a 10-15 partnership in that place or if we hadn't lost three wickets, or if we could have gotten at least 10 runs from three batters. Since they were the 3 top-order batters if they would have played a little longer if they could have added five more runs. Maybe the match would not have been so close, we would have gotten better results earlier.