Marufa Akter (born 1 January 2005) is a Bangladeshi

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who plays for the

Bangladesh women's national cricket team The Bangladesh women's national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Bangladesh in international women's cricket matches. They made their international debut when they played, and won, two matches against Thailand in July 200 ...

as a right-arm medium fast bowler.

Early life

She born in Nilphamari District of Bangladesh and she lives in

Saidpur Saidpur may refer to: __NOTOC__ Bangladesh * Saidpur, Bangladesh, a city in Bangladesh ** Saidpur Airport * Saidpur Cantonment, a cantonment of the Bangladesh Army * Saidpur Upazila, an Upazila of Nilphamari District India * Saidpur (Assembly con ...

, a small town in the Nilphamari district. Her father is a farmer. Her older brother encouraged her to play cricket. Her favorite player is

Hardik Pandya Hardik Himanshu Pandya (born 11 October 1993) is an Indian international cricketer. An All-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm fast-medium, Pandya has played in all 3 formats for India. He also plays for Baroda cricket team in do ...

. In the perior of lock down she handed over her first earnings from cricket in Cox's Bazaar training camp of US$ 412. Marufa went on to attend the country's biggest sports institution: Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) where she learnt some of the skills she showed off on the world's biggest stage.

International career

In November 2022, Marufa was earned maiden call-up for national team of Bangladesh to ODI and T20I squad for the series against New Zealand. She made her

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) debut against New Zealand in the same series on 4 December 2022. She made her

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) debut against New Zealand on 11 December 2024. In December 2022, she was selected to

Bangladesh women's under-19 cricket team The Bangladesh women's national Under-19 cricket team represents the nation of Bangladesh in cricket at women's Under-19 level. The team have formed in 2020 and they have not played any matches. They will participate 2023 ICC Under-19 Women's ...

for the

2023 Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup The 2023 ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup was the first edition of the Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, hosted by South Africa in 2023. The tournament was moved from its original slot at the end of 2021 to January 2023 because of the COVID-19 pa ...

. She took 8 wickets from that tournament with best bowling figure 2/16 in 4 overs against United Arab Emirates women's under-19 cricket team. In January 2023 she was named in Bangladesh's T20I squad for the

2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup The 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup is scheduled to be the eighth edition of ICC Women's T20 World Cup tournament. It is scheduled to be held in South Africa, from 10 to 26 February 2023. Australia are the defending champions. In November 2020, th ...

. She took 4 wickets in that tournament with best bowling figure 3/23 in 4 overs against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. On 16 July 2023, she took 4 wickets of 29 runs in her 7 overs in the first ODI again India, helping Bangladesh to first win against India in ODIs by 40 runs, and she got

Player of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award. In August 2023, she was selected to the national team for the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially known as the 19th Asian Games (), also known as Hangzhou 2022, ( zh, c=杭州2022, p=Hángzhōu Èr líng èr èr), will be a multi-sport event celebrated in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Hangzhou will be the t ...

. She was the part of

Bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

winning team of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

in that tournament. In January 2024, Marufa was nominated for

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Awards 2023 Women's ODI bowling for her maiden four-wicket haul against India, and won that award in the following month.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akter, Marufa 2005 births Living people Bangladesh women One Day International cricketers Bangladesh women Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2022 Asian Games Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in cricket Asian Games bronze medalists for Bangladesh