Online Desk: Tigresses beat Pakistan by five wickets in the third-place play-off match to clinch the bronze medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games on Monday. This is Bangladesh’s first medal in this year’s Asia Games. Although Bangladesh won bronze this time, they had won silver in the previous two games.

Bangladesh women’s cricket team captain Nigar Sultana Joty-led side restricted Pakistan to 64 for 9 in 20 overs and then, achieved the target with ten balls to spare to settle for a bronze at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket field.

In the meantime, an all-round performance from Shorna Akter helped Bangladesh women’s cricket team defeat Pakistan by five wickets in the bronze medal match and bag the country’s first medal at the ongoing 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Winning the toss, Bangladesh opted to bowl first and restricted Pakistan to 64/9 in 20 overs before chasing down the target in 18.2 overs with Shorna starring with both bat and ball. Shorna picked up three wickets for 16 runs in her quota of four overs while Sanjida Akther took two.  Aliya Riaz was Pakistan’s top-scorer with 17 runs before getting dismissed by Shorna in the final over.

Bangladesh started the chase well with a 27-run opening partnership between Shamima Sultana and Shathi Rani who both scored 13 runs each. Coming in to bat at No 5, Shorna steered the Tigresses to victory with a calm unbeaten innings of 14 off 33 as Bangladesh secured their first medal at the biggest multi-sports carnival in Asia.

Bangladesh women’s cricket team won silver medal at the Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou, China, and followed it up by sealing another silver in the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea.