At the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium here on Friday, India defeated Pakistan by a comfortable seven wickets, starting their Women’s T20 Asia Cup title defence on a high note. Deepti Sharma took 3-20, while Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar, and Shreyanka Patil took two wickets apiece.
India’s bowlers put on an outstanding show on a dry pitch, dismissing Pakistan for a meagre 108 runs. In response, India easily chased down the total thanks to an opening stand of 85 runs between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana that came together in just 57 deliveries. With seven wickets remained and 35 balls left, Shafali (45) and Smriti (40) ensured that India knocked down the score. They did this by smacking many boundaries off of Pakistan’s sloppy bowling. The outcome of the Power-play session was as follows: India gained three wickets while Pakistan lost none.
Chasing 109, Smriti started with an easy flip off Fatima Sana for a boundary, while Shafali started by blasting Sadia Iqbal for a four through a deep backward square leg barrier. Shafali welcomed Nida Dar with a sweep through square-leg for four after pulling and cutting Sadia for two simple boundaries.
After Smriti punched outside of the cover-point and picked a boundary with his back to the ball, Shafali lofted the ball and leaned forward to hit Fatima for a brace of fours. India finished the Power-play at 57/0 as Smriti greeted Tuba Hassan with a punch and pull to take two fours, and Shafali swept forcefully for a six. In the eighth over, Smriti attacked Tuba once more, sweeping her for four more. She then lofted twice, paddled, and flicked with flawless ease, taking four more boundaries as the over was completed with 21 runs. Who would attain their half-century first became the only academic interest in the game from that point on.
Smriti, however, was caught by mid-wicket taking the catch in front of her face after failing to achieve the elevation on a lofted ball, which caused her to fall five runs short of her fifty. Returning to the position of number three, Dayalan Hemalatha struck hat-trick of boundaries off Nashra Sandhu.
Shafali, like Smriti, was kept at a gate for forty years by Syeda Aroob Shah, hence she never made it to fifty. Hemalatha mistimed her loft and was trapped at cover-point as Nashra returned. The remaining runs were easily scored by Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur, giving India’s campaign a strong start.
Prior to this, Deepti was the best bowler for India because of his effective middle overs bowling. Only four of Pakistan’s batters reached double figures in their innings due to their inability to establish and sustain a consistent tempo throughout their innings. It was a dismal batting effort. Pakistan lost their final six wickets for 47 runs because they were unable to break free from the strain exerted by the Indian bowlers due to a lack of partnerships and an inability to rotate the strike.
Pakistan, who had chosen to bat first, was caught off guard early on by Pooja when Gull Feroza’s top edge on the pull was caught. In the fourth over, the all-rounder came back to claim Muneeba Ali after she misplayed a short ball and was caught.
Pakistan’s problems continued after the Power-play when Shreyanka took advantage of a silly off-break to chip in and grab the lead off of Aliya Riaz’s flick to mid-wicket. Things became worse for Pakistan after Nida Dar holed out to long-on off Deepti, as Renuka had Sidra Amin slice to backward point and Iram Javed trapped leg before wicket on consecutive deliveries.
After Aroob was run out, Tuba took the ball and struck three boundaries in her 19-ball 22. In the 18th over, she sliced off Deepti to backward point, and then the off-spinner had Nashra nicking behind.
Fatima slog-swept Radha Yadav for two consecutive sixes to push Pakistan over the 100-run barrier. However, with four balls remaining unplayed, Pakistan folded up for 108 when Shreyanka castled Sadia to end their innings.
Brief 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) by seven wickets