'Now people will recognise us' - Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana speaks on team's historic ODI series against India

Bangladesh Women’s skipper Nigar Sultana was pleased after her side levelled the ODI series against India Women. The 50-over format series ended with a 1-1 result, and Sultana felt that the players would now get more recognition in their country. The third and decider ODI of the series was tied, and sicne there was no scheduled time left, both teams had to share the trophy. 

Interestingly, this series will be remembered for a long time in Bangladesh cricket history, as Fargana Hoque became the first Bangladeshi woman to score an ODI century. Nigar also praised Fargana for her match performance after the opening batter scored 107 runs in 160 balls to take her team's total to 225 runs after 50 overs. 

"We would have been really happy had we won the series. I feel we have taken a respectable step forward. Many people [at home] didn't know who plays in the Bangladesh team. Now people will recognise who is Nahida [Akter], who is [Fargana Hoque] Pinky, who is Marufa [Akter]. I think this itself is an achievement," said the Bangladeshi skipper in the post-match conference. 

“It was nice of the cricket board to say positive things about us too. They came to see our matches. The crowd supported us. The media is promoting us. We batted really well. It was a real positive, Pinky apu batted superbly. Held up one end. We couldn't bat the full 50 overs in the previous game, so that was a target for us today," Sultana added. 

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India was one down at the start of the ODI series but came back strongly- 

Speaking of the series, the home side, under the leadership of Nigar Sultana, won the first match of the series at Dhaka by 40 runs. It was a rain-affected game, and the Indian side was bowled out for 113 runs while chasing the target in 44 overs. In the second game, the Indian team made a comeback and scored 228 runs. During the chase, the home side were bowled out for 120 runs.

Jemimah Rodrigues was the star of the second ODI with her all-round performance, as she scored 86 runs and picked up four wickets. Interestingly, in the 3rd ODI, Harleen Deol's innings of 77 runs was acknowledged with the Player of the Match award, but Fargana was given the Player of the Series award for her 181 runs in three ODI series. Nevertheless, before this, at the start of the tour, Harmanpreet Kaur-led side won the T20I series by 2-1