Salma Khatun, who romped to 86 against Hong Kong during the second one-day match at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday, swings one towards square-leg.Photo: STAR

Bangladesh women's cricket team took a 2-0 lead against their Hong Kong counterparts with an emphatic 109-run win in the second match of the EBL cricket series at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday.
Skipper Salma Khatun led the hosts from the front once again with a cracking 86 in a total of 249 for 5, Bangladesh's highest score against a foreign team.
Salma, who won the player-of-the-match award in the first game at the same venue two days back for a five-wicket haul, dominated a 156-run fourth wicket stand with vice-captain Panna Ghosh after Bangladesh lost their first three wickets for 66 runs.
Salma's 95-ball knock featured nine boundaries while Panna's unbeaten 80 off 105 balls contained five fours.
Set to scale a virtual mountain, the multi-racial Hong Kong side, who were bowled out for 38 in the first game, showed a lot of improvement with their openers Connie Wong (26) and Kennu Gill (61 off 77 balls) producing 89 runs. But once the pair was separated in the 25th over, the innings fell apart. They were eventually bowled out for 140 with two overs yet to be bowled.
Neisha Pratt scored 35 off 49 balls while four of their batswomen in the middle got out for duck.
After her batting heroics, Salma took two wickets for 8 runs in her 9-over spell to win the player-of-the-match award for the second successive game.
The captain however didn't hesitate to express her disappointment for missing a century.
“I must have been there for a couple of overs more to get those runs,” she said after the match.
The third game of the four-match series will be held at the same venue tomorrow.
SCORES IN BRIEF
BANGLADESH: 249 for 5 in 50 overs (Sathira Zakir 17, Suktara 2, Ayesha Akter 11, Panna Ghosh not out 80, Salma Khatun 86; Connie Wong 2-31, Neisha Pratt 1-23, Godiva Li 1-57)
HONG KONG: 140 all out in 48.0 overs (Connie Wong 26, Kennu Gill 62, Neisha Pratt 35; Salma Khatun 2-8, Romana Ahmed 3-30, Tithy Rani Sarker 2-30, Sathira Zakir 3-33)
Result: Bangladesh won by 109 runs.
Player-of-the-match: Salma Khatun (Bangladesh).