Dubai, 6 October. With the brilliant performance of the bowlers led by medium pacer Arundhati Reddy (three wickets for 19 runs) and useful innings of Shefali Verma (32) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (29 retired hurt), India registered its first win by beating arch-rival Pakistan by six wickets in its second match of Group A of the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday.
India kept its semi-final hopes alive by scoring 108 runs for four wickets in 18.5 overs after restricting Pakistan to a paltry 105 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs.
India has got its first win in this tournament, but could the Indian team have chased the target with more speed, because the Indian team’s net run rate is negative and its next two matches are against Sri Lanka and Australia. If India had achieved this target by 11.2 overs, then India’s net run rate could have been positive.
Arundhati Reddy, who took three wickets in Pakistan’s innings, received the Player of the Match award. While chasing the target, India once again lost opener Smriti Mandhana cheaply. Mandhana was dismissed for seven runs and the team’s score was 18.
Shefali then put India on the path to victory with a crucial 43-run partnership for the second wicket with Jemimah Rodrigues. Shefali was dismissed for 32 runs with the help of three fours in 35 balls. In the 16th over of the innings, Fatima Sana brought excitement to the match by giving two blows in two balls to India. Fatima dismissed Jemimah and Richa Ghosh and reduced India’s score to 80 runs for four wickets. Jemimah scored 23 runs in 28 balls.
After two wickets fell in quick succession, captain Harmanpreet took charge and retired hurt after scoring 29 runs in 24 balls. Harman went outside the leg stump to play Nida Dar’s ball, played on the inside out, got a fuller ball outside the off stump and finally went to open the face of the bat and lost balance, Harman fell on the crease and now the physio has come on the field, Harman had fallen forward, but brought the back leg to the crease, it seems that she has a strain in her neck. Sajeevan Sajna gave India the victory by hitting a four as soon as she came.
Earlier there was a time when it seemed that the Pakistan team would not be able to play the full 20 overs but in the last overs Pakistan took the pace forward. Two catches were also missed from Shobhana Asha but overall India stopped Pakistan on a low score.
This match, which was played on a new pitch, was the 100th T20 match to be played in Dubai.
Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. But after losing Gul Ferozza in the first over, Pakistan’s innings never got back on track and they lost wickets at regular intervals. Muniba Ali (17), Nida Dar (28), captain Fatima Sana (13) and Syeda Arub Shah (14) were the only batsmen to reach double figures.
For India, Arundhati Reddy took three wickets for 19 runs in four overs while Shreyanka Patil took two wickets for just 12 runs. Renuka Singh, Deepti Sharma and Shobhana Asha took one wicket each.
