DHAKA, Oct 14, 2025 (BSS)- Bangladesh Women's team captain Nigar Sultana Joty 
praised her side's fighting spirit despite a heartbreaking three-wicket 
defeat to South Africa at Vishakhapatnam in India on Monday.

According to here, Bangladesh were able to show the cricketing fraternity 
that they can beat any team in the world, through their performance in the 
ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.

"Really proud of the way we fought to the last ball. The girls are so young. 
We fight for each and every run, we're very emotional, so it was a great 
learning curve," Joty said after the defeat.

Bangladesh made a good start to the World Cup with a seven-wicket victory 
against Pakistan after which they lost all three matches.

But they could have won the game against England and South Africa, should 
they become more proactive in their approach. 

While some decisions went against them in the match against England, they 
appeared to be on track of winning the game against South Africa after 
posting their World Cup highest 232-6.

The belief to win further fueled when they reduced South Africa to 78-5. 
However, they couldn't keep up the pressure for a long time as the Proteas 
Women's team snatched a three-wicket victory from Bangladesh's hand.

"We have lost early wickets in the powerplay, so we wanted a partnership. 
Maybe we were still 10-15 runs short," Joty added.

But the finding of the game was Shorna Akter's batting. The youngster was 
long dubbed as the Bangladesh's future star. She lived up to the hype with a 
whirlwind half-century, hitting a 35 ball-half-century, which is now the 
fastest by a Bangladeshi female batter.

Shorna in fact broke the record of Joty who earlier hit 39 ball-fifty.
Joty lauded Shorna's work ethics, saying that she justified her talent.

 "I've been talking about her for a long time. The way she batted was the 
testament of her ability. We were enjoying it and showed how we should bat," 
Joty said.

Joty also heaped praise on the bowlers.

"We talked about putting it on the right length, maybe we fell down, but we 
showed good spirit," she said.
 
"My team was very young but we kept going. I have told them to be proud of 
how we have done and we have three more games left. The way we played we gave 
them a tough time in the middle."

Bangladesh will take on mighty Australia in their next match on Thursday at 
Vishakhapatnam.