4 March - Dunedin - Bangladesh Captain Nigar Sultana pre-match press conference

Media Manager: Hello and welcome to the pre match press conference with Nigar Sultana Jolti– captain of Bangladesh, head of the opening match of Cricket World Cup 2022 against South Africa at University Oval in Dunedin. Please put up your hand if you'd like to ask a question and we’ll go through in the order that they come in. Any questions please?

Reporter: Hi Nigar, I just wanted to know what your biggest takeaway is from the practice games that you played leading up to this World Cup?

Nigar: Thank you, I guess we have prepared well in the practice matches, maybe the result wasn’t on our way, but still we got a lot of positives sides up there and we just wanted to take all the positivity’s from the practice match and we want to implement in the tournament.

Reporter: And just one more if I can, South Africa have a very strong pace attack. Have you guys as a batting unit spoken about how you are going to tackle that? And also, you know, in the nets how have you gone about preparing for a challenge like that?

Nigar: Actually we played against South Africa many times, so we knew their strength, and we played against their fast bowlers. So we have some ideas about them. And obviously, we do some homework against them. And we wanted to go with our plan that we could execute on the match.

Reporter: Thank you all the best.

Reporter: Thank you, best wishes for the tournament, Nigar - have a good debut of the World Cup. My question to you is just following up on what you said - South Africa is actually a team that you have played often I know compared to a few other teams where you are going to be playing for the first time in ODI’s and the World Cup. So how important is it that you're starting against South Africa and that feeling of familiarity, when you're making a debut in a World Cup like this - is that making you feel a little more confident going into tomorrow's game?

Nigar: I think, for us and for everyone first match is very important, because this is how we are going to like impact to the tournament, how we're going to do actually rest of the tournament. So we will all go for the win and I think this is our opportunity because we know South Africa well, so it is going to be a very good chance for us that we are going with with a good win.

Reporter: Also, if I may ask just one more question. What are the areas that you wanted to focus on during the warm up matches particularly - is there one or two areas that you were looking for answers, and were you happy with what you saw?

Nigar: No, not actually. Because if we owned those matches, I think we couldn't find are leggings. So I'm really happy that actually - maybe the girls fought really well on those matches. And I think they trying to prepare themselves for the tournament. But still, I think there are a lot of side that we need to improve on and we are going to work on it and it still we have one day and one practice session. So I think the coaching staff are working on that

Reporter: Thank you - for people that have just joined us, if you'd like to ask a question, please use the raise your hand function on the zoom.

Reporter: Just one final question. Have you set expectations? What has been the talk in the team been about or what have you been telling your teammates - Is it - you have targets set for the team as a whole or the tournament or are you just looking at one match one at a time? Is that how you are taking this?

Nigar: Yeah, exactly that you said we are going with one match at a time and you know, this is our first ever World Cup and we wanted to make this World Cup memorable. And we know that - we all know that we need get a good start for the tournament because it is going to give us the more courage and more confidence to do well in the rest of the tournament. And obviously I'm trying to give my girls that confident that no, we don't want to see the names actually that we are playing against South Africa or whatever the team is. Just we want to do see our strength and what we can do actually as a team. If you can say that those matches we will own against they are big teams or the teams - so those matches we contribute as a team, each individual as a bowling unit and as a batter - so we wanted to just do like the same thing, we wanted to contribute as a bowling and batting unit.

Reporter: Thank you and all the best.

Media Manager: Thank you best of luck. Thank you so much. Thank you. Are there any other questions from anyone else on the call?

[Reporter] Jyoti, congratulations that this is the first time you will be participating in the World Cup. You mentioned earlier that you are happy that you lost the previous match, as it will help you understand where you are lacking. Have you managed to understand where you have lacked? In the first match, the batting and bowling was not that great and in the second match the bowling was good, but batting was not at par, so what are the specific areas you want to concentrate and improve in?

[Nigar Sultana] I didn’t mean to say that losing the practice match has made me happy. What I meant was that when you lose, you understand and try to evaluate where you might have gone wrong and work on those specific points to further improve your game. If we would have won, then we would never have focused on our shortcomings at all. This I feel has been very good for the team. I would like to say the two practice matches against England and Pakistan, we started well, but probably couldn't keep up with the momentum. I think we all need to prepare and learn how this impacts our bowling using the new ball, all rounders who can contribute to the bowling or the batting team members who couldn't keep up. We have taken this as a learning curve and discussed these aspects. We are all discussing internally with the coaches on how to learn from this and take these as a learning process for the future.

[Reporter] What about partnerships? We haven't seen any good partnerships yet.

[Nigar Sultana] We have understood the conditions in which we need to play under. Partnership is very important. In the first match Shayman played brilliantly and a long innings. 2-3 batsmen could have supported her and we would have made more than 200 runs. 250 or 260 would have been better for our preparations as well. In the next match with Pakistan, Pinky played really well, even Jahanara, Sharmin Sultana started well. If Rumana could have stayed a bit longer, that would have worked well. Even Ritu played well. Now we know that we can make a solid start with the batsmen but we are not able to finish well. Our objective is to maintain the good momentum till the end and form those partnerships.

[Reporter] Can you update us on the team injuries?

[Nigar Sultana] So far, Jahanara is good. She had a minor injury on her arm while bowling. She is well and we will see her in the next match.

[Reporter] The Bangladesh team depends on spinners. Now you will have to depend on the pacers, depending on the conditions. In the test match, Fariya, Krshina and Zoya have bowled well. How much will you depend on pacers?

[Nigar Sultana] Well, look at the last two matches, pacers have done tremendously well. Even if they didn’t start well, they have covered it in the middle with a strong end. Our pacer unit is an asset for us. I believe they can maintain this form in key matches. I am confident of Ritu for this and Jahanara as well has been a great support. Against Pakistan, Fariha bowled well. She is unknown but if we can use her it would be to our advantage.

[Reporter] How are you preparing for the South African pacers?

[Nigar Sultana] We have come here earlier to play in these conditions in Neilsen and playing these practice matches to familiarize and adjust here. The wicket here is good and pace bowling works best. Still we have come prepared to handle the pace bowling with our batsmen. If we play well and deliver our best, we can have the best match.

[Reporter] Have you spoken to the men’s team before the matches?

[Nigar Sultana] We did speak before coming down here. We have been busy with the practice, etc so haven't been able to find time otherwise here. We have a good chance and we are focused on taking this opportunity to do well for the country.

That's the end of the press conference and I look forward to the match tomorrow. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you.