What might have been for the Tigresses

Bangladesh women's cricket team had the golden chance to beat neighbours India for only the fourth time in 24 attempts in 20-over cricket in their ICC T20 World Cup clash in Manchester on Thursday.

In the event of that happening, the Tigresses would have stolen a march on their rivals as far as qualifying for the semi-finals is concerned.

But as it happened, the Indians instead emerged victorious by five wickets with 19 balls to spare to take a step closer to the last four.

As for the women in red and green, they will ponder what might have been had captain Nigar Sultana Joty not dropped player of the match Shafali Verma early on in India's chase of Bangladesh's 136/8.

Joty grassed the opportunity in the first over off the bowling of seamer Marufa Akter when Shafali was on four.

The opener went on to hammer a brilliant 34-ball 53, decorated with eight fours and a six, to help her side to victory, and second place in the Group 1 standings.

Bangladesh tried to script a comeback with spin in the middle overs with Ritu Moni leading the way, and Rabeya Khan and Nahida Akter also proving to be somewhat economical, but in the end it was not to be.

Bangladesh find themselves in fourth place with four points from as many matches.

Record six-time champions Australia are currently sitting pretty at the top of the pool with maximum eight points from four matches while India are second with six points from four games.

South Africa are third with six points from four matches.

The Tigresses must now beat South Africa well in their final group stage clash and hope for a huge Australia win in India's last group stage encounter. 

"We created a lot of chances but couldn't grab them so India took the game away. We bowled well. We were 15-20 runs short. Got a good powerplay, couldn't carry on. We thought anything can happen, so try to bowl in the right areas and take opportunities. Somehow, we lost momentum. It's not about success everytime, the way this unit is growing day by day, it's a success for me. Playing at Lord's (against South Africa) will be good, we hope to create memories there," said Joty at the presentation ceremony.