Lahore, Apr 16 (UNI) Having won their first three games at the tournament, Bangladesh are just a solitary victory away from finishing in the top two places in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2025.

This will ensure their participation at the global megaevent later this year.

However, the side will be coming up against two quality opponents in West Indies and Pakistan

and will need to be at their very best to overcome the challenge.

Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty, speaking after her side’s win over Scotland on Tuesday, wanted her teammates to keep themselves grounded and go about the grind before these big

match-ups.

“We plan to go match-by-match. Yes, we’re looking forward to the game, but we play this game as

a team,” Joty stated.

After starting with a massive 178-run win over Thailand, Bangladesh secured a nailbiter against Ireland by two wickets, before overcoming the fight from Scotland’s tail to win their third encounter

by 34 runs, an ICC report said.

Joty wanted her side to put in a similar effort against the West Indies and Pakistan.

“We need to concentrate on what (good things) we’ve done as a team. It’s going to be a good

match, and the way we’ve played in the last few games, we just want to continue with that,"

she said.

Bangladesh’s winning run has been setup by a strong batting performances, with Joty leading the charge with 235 runs from three games, to top the run charts at the tournament.

Joty has been thrilled with the efforts from her batting group at the Qualifier so far.

“Batting was our visible problem for the last few years. Our bowlers have done well but some of

our batting couldn’t click (in the past)," she noted.

“But this tournament our batters have played wonderfully well. They’ve been getting runs in the

top-order especially, and they’ve been pretty consistent," Joty said.

“It was the only unit where we needed to work on, but those improvements are actually showing

now,” she said.

Bangladesh will go up against Hayley Matthews’ West Indies on April 17 next at the tournament.

UNI BM