As if teasing the Bangladesh team, the sun was brightest at Headingley as soon as their innings against Australia at the Women's T20 World Cup ended on 77 for 8. After being sent in on what is usually a good batting surface with a fast outfield, Bangladesh were left wondering what might have been had they seen off the early challenge from Australia's quicks.
Annabel Sutherland, for whom Headingley is home during the last two seasons of the Hundred, had said on match eve that the pitch "might wiggle around a little bit" but that "it's pretty nice [to bat on]" once you're set. The sun was out briefly during the toss, where Australia chose to bowl to make the most of the early movement, and hardly anything went Bangladesh's way.
This Australian team might look like the same side that turns up and dominates every ICC event, but it actually isn't. They have a new captain - Sophie Molineux - for the third successive T20 World Cup, and they were without the injured Phoebe Litchfield and Ash Gardner for this game. They were undeterred by any of that.
When Kim Garth came on for the second over, she looked to pitch the ball up in search of swing, and kept shaping it away from the Bangladesh openers. For Juairiya Ferdous, who loves swiping the new ball to the leg side, playing against the swing was tough. Dilara Akter could not connect with the only ball she faced from Garth; she was out for a duck as the ball shaped in to knock over her off stump.
Headingley might be the home ground for Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Litchfield and Nicola Carey in the Hundred, but it was Garth who looked truly at home, with her family watching from the stands. She said during the innings break that she got "good insight" from her team-mates who had played at Headingley before, especially about the slope at the ground which Australian players don't see back home, and she set up the innings for the bowlers to follow.
Playing only her second T20 at this ground, Garth's plan to bowl from close to the umpire for a wicket-to-wicket line with a hint of movement left the Bangladesh batters with little room for error. Of the 18 balls she bowled in the powerplay, Garth pitched 11 in line with the stumps, and seven of them ended as dots. Not surprisingly, the two that fetched her the wickets landed on good length.
Ferdous, Bangladesh's hitter at the top, was the second to fall in the fourth over when she too swung across the line. The swing was more prominent in her dismissal than Dilara's. Ferdous' feet were almost cemented to the pitch as the ball swerved from leg towards middle, and trapped her right in front. Garth finished with 2 for 18 in four overs.
The ball was doing a little early, yet Molineux trusted herself to also do damage in the powerplay instead of going all out with four pace bowlers. She came on first change in the fifth over, and straightaway looked at zipping the ball through towards the stumps. Molineux thought she had a wicket first ball when she hit Sharmin Akhter's pads from around the wicket, but ball tracking showed the delivery missing leg.
When Sharmin played across the line three balls later, Molineux struck the pads again right in front. This time Sharmin didn't even think of reviewing.
Bangladesh were reeling at 22 for 3 at the end of the powerplay, and they were being stifled under overcast conditions. They managed just one attacking stroke in that phase, which was a top edge for four off Shorna Akter's bat. The school children spread across the stands on the square boundary were celebrating every wicket, and they wanted more.
Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana rued the fall of wickets in the first ten overs, at the end of which they were 33 for 5, and said Australia made it "very difficult" for them. "We are better than this, we know that," she said.
For Australia, they bossed the start of the game as they often do, and look unstoppable. "Kimmy up front was beautiful," Molineux said later. She could have been describing Australia's campaign looks after two group games.
