Women’s T20 Asia Cup: Bowlers, openers carry India to seven-wicket win over Pakistan

Dambulla, July 19, 2024-

Deepti Sharma took 3-20 while Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar and Shreyanka Patil took two wickets each as India registered a comfortable seven-wicket win over Pakistan to begin their Women’s T20 Asia Cup title defence with a victory at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium on Friday.

On a dry pitch, the bowlers shone in a top-notch bowling performance for India as they bowled Pakistan out for a modest 108. In reply, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana shared an opening stand of 85 runs off just 57 balls and propelled India to an effortless total. Shafali (45) and Smriti (40) feasted on Pakistan’s loose bowling and hit boundaries galore to ensure that India secured the total with seven wickets in hand and 35 balls to spare. The Power-play phase summed up the result with Pakistan losing three wickets while India lost none.

Shafali began the chase of 109 by hitting Sadia Iqbal for a four through a deep backward square leg fence, while Smriti began with an easy flick of Fatima Sana for a boundary. Shafali pulled and cut Sadia for two easy boundaries, before welcoming Nida Dar with a sweep through square-leg for four.

Smriti got on the backfoot to bat wide of cover-point and pick a boundary, followed by Shafali who lofted and leaned forward to unleash a copybook straight drive from Fatima for a brace of fours. Smriti welcomed Tuba Hassan with a punch and pull to take two fours, followed by Shafali sweeping powerfully for a six as India ended the Power-play at 57/0. Tuba was further attacked in the eighth over when Smriti swept her for another four, followed by her lofting twice, paddling and flicking with immaculate ease to take four more boundaries as 21 runs came from the over. From there on, the only academic interest in the game was who would reach their half-century first.

But Smriti fell five runs short of her fifty when she failed to get the elevation on a lofted shot and was caught by mid-wicket who took the catch in front of her face. Dayalan Hemalatha, back at number three, hit a hat-trick from boundaries off Nashra Sandhu.

Like Smriti, Shafali failed to reach her fifty as Syeda Aroob Shah castrated her through the gate for 40. Nashra came back to find Hemalatha mistimed her loft and was caught at cover point. Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues hit the remaining runs to get India’s campaign off to a winning start.

Earlier, Deepti bowled well in the middle overs and was the best Indian bowler. For Pakistan, it was a disappointing batting performance as they struggled to get and maintain a steady pace throughout their innings, resulting in only four batters reaching double figures. The lack of partnerships and inability to rotate strikes often meant that they could not escape the pressure exerted by the Indian bowlers as Pakistan lost their last six wickets for 47 runs.

Pakistan opted to bat first but were soon in for a shock when Gull Feroza’s top edge on the pull was caught by mid-on off Pooja. The all-rounder returned in the fourth over to claim Muneeba Ali with another short ball which she missed to cover.

After the Power-play, there was no end to Pakistan’s misery as Shreyanka got a loopy off-break to dive in and take the leading edge from Aliya Riaz’s flick to mid-wicket. After Nida Dar holed out to long-on off Deepti, things went from bad to worse for Pakistan as Renuka had Sidra Amin sliced ​​to backward point and Iram Javed caught lbw on consecutive deliveries.

Tuba hit three boundaries in her 22-hole knock from 19 balls before hitting Deepti to backward point in the 18th over, followed by the off-spinner with Nashra poking the ball behind after Aroob was out.

Fatima took Pakistan past the 100-run mark by beating Radha Yadav for a brace of sixes. But Shreyanka ended Pakistan’s innings by castrating Sadia, sending them folding for 108 with four balls unused.

Short scores:

Pakistan 108 all out in 19.2 overs (Sidra Amin 25; Deepti Sharma 3-20, Renuka Singh Thakur 2-14) lost to India 112/3 in 14.1 overs (Smriti Mandhana 45, Shafali Verma 40; Syeda Aroob Shah 2-9, Nashra Sandhu 1-20) with seven wickets (Agency)