Lanning steers Australia to 8-wicket win over Bangladesh

Meg Lannings unbeaten 48 guided Australia to an eightwicket win over Bangladesh as the reigning ICC Womens T20 World Cup champions recorded their second successive victory hereLanning led a successful pursuit of Bangladeshs 107 of which captain Nigar Sultana Joty contributed 57 with Georgia Wareham 320 among the Australian bowlers to shine on Tuesday nightDarcie Brown chipped in with two for 23 before Alyssa Healy and Lannings partnership of 72 laid the foundations in the chaseBangladesh opted to bat upon winning the toss but they lost Shamima Sultana early Beth Mooney taking a brilliant catch at extra cover from the bowling of Brown The fast bowlers second wicket soon followed as she uprooted Murshida Khatuns leg stump with just 11 runs on the boardUp stepped Bangladeshs leading run scorer and captain Joty who struck backtoback fours to inject some momentum into the innings By the end of the powerplay she had 21 off 13 after hitting Alana King for four and a six in quick successionThe skipper lost the company of Sobhana Mostary who offered an easy catch to King and a first wicket for Wareham who was making her first appearance of the competitionAlso readWomens T20 World Cup India aim for improved bowling show against West IndiesBrown thought she had taken her third scalp of the evening just after the midway stage when Shorna Akter was given out caught behind but the young batter survived on reviewThe 16yearold also escaped an lbw appeal in the next over and subsequently gave Joty a platform to become the first Bangladeshi to score an ICC Womens T20 World Cup halfcentury hers from 41 balls including seven boundariesWareham struck twice in the 17th over bowling Shorna for 12 shortly after the teenagers first boundary before repeating the trick to dismiss Rumana Ahmed and leave the score 90 for fiveJoty then departed Lanning taking a routine catch from the bowling of Ashleigh Gardner before Megan Schutt dismissed Nahida Akter at the deathMarufa Akter who shone in Bangladeshs opener against Sri Lanka picked up where she left off in the reply by taking the key early wicket of Mooney for two but Alyssa Healy and Lanning soon started motoring They hit five boundaries including a fine six from the former in the space of 11 balls to carry Australia to 45 for one by the end of the powerplayLanning was then put down by Marufa the 18yearold unable to prevent the ball from squirming under her ambitious dive and away for fourThe secondwicket partnership soon passed 50 but was ended when Healy picked out Joty to provide Shorna with a breakthroughGardner joined Lanning at the crease and hit the boundary from the second ball of the 18th over to take Australia top of Group 1Australia stay in Gqeberha to face tabletoppers Sri Lanka on Thursday while Bangladesh take on New Zealand at Newlands the following dayBrief Scores Bangladesh 1077 in 20 overs Nigar Sultana 57 Georgia Wareham 320 Darcie Brown 223 lost to Australia 1113 in 182 overs Meg Lanning 48 not out Alyssa Healy 37 Shorna Akter 112 by 8 wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever