In Dubai on Sunday, India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored a resolute 29 runs to lead her team to a dramatic six-wicket victory over Pakistan.
India were looking comfortable at 61-1, having restricted Pakistan to 105-8 in their 20 overs, and were set to win with 106 to spare. However, Pakistani captain Fatima Sana’s two wickets in two balls opened the way, and Kaur brought her team this close to victory.
But she fell and seemed to rick her neck when India was two runs short, leaving the field undefeated on 29 from 24 balls.
India finished at 108-4, winning with seven balls remaining when Sajeevan Sajana scored the winning runs from the following delivery.
Smriti Mandhana of India remarked, “We have followed the plans and been very disciplined.” In the field, we performed admirably. Although we could have won with a stronger bat start, we’ll take the victory.
After Fatima won the toss and decided to bat on a surface that created some strange bounce, there wasn’t much else to cheer about, even though Nida Dar top-scored for Pakistan with 28 off 34 balls.
“In the batting, we fell short of the mark. We were short by ten to fifteen runs, remarked Fatima.
The Indian bowlers all made a contribution, but Arundhati Reddy was the most effective as she finished with 3-19 from her four overs after clean bowled Dar in the final over after removing Omaima Sohail (3) and Aliya Riaz (4) in the middle order.
I’ve put a lot of effort into improving my T20 bowling at every phase of the game. I’m now working very hard. Player of the Match Reddy commented, “I attacked the stumps and kept it simple.”
Before the second wicket went in the 12th over, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues helped India reach 61 after they had lost Mandhana for seven.
Their brilliant twenty-year-old opener, Verma, hit three fours in his thirty-five-ball 32 before holed out to mid-on.
That offered Pakistan a slim chance, but Kaur ensured that India won 13 out of 16 Twenty20 International matches against Pakistan.
For India, this was a much-needed victory in Group A following their defeat to New Zealand in their initial encounter. With Pakistan slightly ahead of them in net run rate, they are still in fourth place in the group.
The next match is scheduled for Wednesday in Dubai between India and Sri Lanka, and on Friday Pakistan plays the favourites, Australia.
Both West Indies and Scotland have lost their Group B openers, and they will play each other late on Sunday in Dubai.
