The Bahrain women’s cricket team has come a long way in a very short span of time and shown ‘massive’ improvement, the team’s coach said.
“For a team, that was literally formed just three months ago, to have performed the way these girls have done in this tournament is truly incredible,” Prabodha Arthavidu told the GDN from Oman, where Bahrain had just missed qualifying for the semi-finals of the six-nation GCC Women’s T20I Championship Cup.
Perched at number four on the table, Bahrain looked set to easily make the cut as they headed into their final match against the UAE on Saturday. Kuwait were level on points with Bahrain but a spot below because of net run-rate, with no games in hand. All Bahrain had to do was put in a good effort so that, even if they lost, their superior net run-rate would ensure qualification.
Instead, the team collapsed to a morale-shattering 43 all out as they chased an imposing 254-run target set by the vastly more experienced UAE team. The huge margin of defeat allowed Kuwait to leapfrog Bahrain on net run-rate into the fourth spot on the table, causing heartbreak to a team of mostly amateurs with South Asian roots who had punched above their weight throughout the tournament.
But Arthavidu, a former Sri Lanka under-19 player, saw only positives in the team’s remarkable journey through the tournament – and in the months preceding it.
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