'We have been waiting for this moment for a long time'

The Bangladesh women's cricket team has ended a 10-year winless streak in the T20 World Cup with a victory over Scotland. Batting first at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Bangladesh scored 119 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their 20 overs, while Scotland managed to score only 103 runs, giving Bangladesh a 16-run win.

Though the T20 World Cup was initially set to be hosted in Bangladesh, the team hopes to offset some disappointment from this change with their victory against Scotland. After the match, captain Nigar Sultana expressed her excitement during the award ceremony.

Key contributions came from the partnership between Sathi Rani and Sobhana Mostari. The captain praised their performance, stating, "We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. We felt this was our moment. It wasn't easy to settle in on this kind of pitch, and the partnership between Rani and Mostari was crucial for us."

Nigar Sultana mentioned that the team was confident in defending their score of 119, saying, "We had a good total, and we believed in ourselves. We have a strong spin attack, and Marufa has been performing well, so we were confident about our defense. We are trying to do something different."

The match started on a challenging note for Bangladesh, with Taj Nehar being run out on the very first ball. Commenting on this, Nigar said, "Taj was playing excellently in the last two warm-up matches, and she knows how to build partnerships and hit boundaries. Unfortunately, she got out."

With their first match win, Bangladesh is thrilled. Nigar concluded, "We are trying to gain momentum, and we’ve achieved that. I’m very happy that we fought back, and seeing the smiles on the girls’ faces is the biggest motivation."