Bangladesh players couldn’t help but get emotional after another close defeat in the 2025 Women’s World Cup, this time to South Africa at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, on Monday (October 13).
It took a spirited batting performance for them to put up 232/6 in the first innings, a big enough score for the Tigeresses’ spin attack to challenge the Proteas with. South Africa were down to 78/5 at one stage, but recovered through half-centuries from all-rounders Marizanne Kapp and Chloe Tryon.
Nadine de Klerk again became a hero as she, alongside Masabata Klaas, chased down 37 runs in the last five overs — with eight needed off the last over, de Klerk hit a six and a four in three balls — to clinch a three-wicket win for South Africa.
Nahida, the bowler of the last over, sat down with tears, and many other players in the dugout had their palms covering their faces, too, even as the South Africans celebrated.
Bangladesh players can’t believe that they lost this game, heart 💔 situation for them. Players are emotional and crying #WomensWorldCup #BANWvsSAW pic.twitter.com/XlEOjZ92II
— All about Cricket 🏏 (@inr4477) October 13, 2025
Skipper Nigar Sultana Jyoti addressed the tears and expressed how proud she was of her team in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“First of all, I’m really proud of the way my girls fight till the last ball. And I’m sad because they are crying in the dressing room, because they are so young. And I’m really happy the way they have given their 110 percent today. And they are very emotional right now and they keep believing in themselves that we can get this win. So I think it was a great learning (experience) for us,” she said.
“I know my team is very young. But they keep growing each and every day. And how we came back after the New Zealand game is quite brilliant. I just say (message to the team) be proud of how you have done in the middle. And this is not the last game we are going to play. So we have three more games left. And we should be proud. And we should keep our heads high because of the way we played, I think we have given them a tough time in the middle. So we should keep doing that,” Sultana added.
This was a second narrow defeat for Bangladesh. In their second match, against England, they had reduced the opposition to 103-6 in the chase of 179, but couldn’t take the last four wickets.
Bangladesh will now play against Australia on October 16.
