Dropping dollies leads Bangladesh to doldrums; India in Women’s Asia Cup final

India players celebrate after taking a wicket against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. (ACC)

At the 50-over Women’s World Cup last year, Bangladesh earned an unenviable distinction — they dropped more catches (15) than they pouched (12). A catching efficiency of 44.4% left daylight between them and the next-worst side on that metric. It was evident that their fielding standards sat starkly at odds with what the modern game demands. That same failing undid them yet again in the 40-run defeat to India in the Women’s Asia Cup semi-final in Dubai on Thursday.

Bangladesh dropped four dollies on the night. Three of those reprieves fell Shafali Verma’s way, and the opener from Rohtak was too good not to take advantage.

The first took nine deliveries to arrive. Off-spinner Sultana Khatun was given the new ball for the classic match-up against leftie Smriti Mandhana — but she could have had Shafali’s number instead. Should have, in fact, for enticing the opener into going aerial with long-on posted on the boundary. Would have, too, had Fahima Khatun not produced her best impression of former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final.

Our Women in Blue book their place in the final without breaking a sweat. 💙

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The cost of that drop escalated through the next 74 deliveries. Shafali faced 33 of those before finally departing for 64.

Fortune would smile on her again in the third over. Miscuing a Marufa Akter inswinger, she almost found Nahida Akter at mid-on. The latter was not too keen on being the outlier among Bangladeshi fielders.

In the 13th over, Sultana and Fahima swapped roles. A mistimed hoick off the latter’s bowling picked out Sultana, who got herself carefully into position, just inches from the rope. But positioning was never an issue — the catching was. If the first drop conjured Karius, this one had shades of England’s Rob Green against the USA in the 2010 World Cup.

Shafali Varma takes the attack straight to the Bangladeshi bowlers! 💥

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By the end of it, Shafali had scored 58 more runs than she should have. The fourth drop was Richa Ghosh’s. The cumulative result of these, alongside Indian batters’ alacrity at such gifts, resulted in the favourites aggregating 149/6.

With the bat, Bangladesh did well in comparison to some of their recent efforts. Yet, it wasn’t nearly good enough to pose a genuine threat to India’s in-form spin trio. Deepti Sharma took three wickets, while Sree Charani and Prema Rawat had one apiece. Bangladesh could only muster 109/6.

Brief Scores: India 149/6 (Shafali Verma 64; Sultana Khatun 2/30) beat Bangladesh 109/6 (Shorna Akter 22 not out; Deepti Sharma 3/26) by 40 runs.