Pakistan won the toss and elected to field first in their must-win encounter against England at the ICC Women’s World Cup on Wednesday in Sri Lanka.
Last week‘s defeat against Australia left their knockout hopes hanging by a thread as Pakistan registered three losses on the trot and need a win today to keep their campaign alive.
Pakistan have two changes in their side, Aliya Riaz and Omema Sohail are back in the team.
Speaking at the toss, Fatima said: “Pitch looks like it will spin, and we will want to take advantage. The spinners will want to take advantage … we want to bat longer, build partnerships. We need to finish off games.”
The weather in Colombo is hot after a bit of early morning rain.
Pakistan women’s all-rounder Syed Aroob Shah said on Tuesday that the team was looking to “perform better with the bat” ahead of the England encounter.
Squad member Shawaal Zulfiqar will be continuing with the squad after her father passed away in Sialkot, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on the same day.
A superb century from Beth Mooney dragged defending champions Australia back from the brink of disaster after being 76-7 before they completed a crushing 107-run win over the Green Shirts last Wednesday.
Fatima Sana’s charges endured a tough start to their campaign, slumping to heavy defeats against Bangladesh and India.
Their batting has wavered, although their bowling has been exceptional in short phases but has lacked the punch to finish innings well, and lapses in the field — a combination that has left them bottom of the eight-team table with little margin for error.
Pakistan need their batting to fire going into the England encounter if they are to avoid an early exit from the marquee event.
Opener Muneeba Ali is one of the batters who need to come good — having come into the tournament in decent nick but unable to provide the Green Shirts with good starts at the top of the order.
England go into the encounter with three wins in three matches — adding to the peril of the Green Shirts’ task.
Speaking ahead of the match, England’s Alice Capsey said that Pakistan had been involved in some “exciting games of cricket”.
“I think what we’ve seen by Pakistan so far is that they’ve been involved in some really exciting games of cricket, and they’ve had teams kind of on the back burner a little bit,” the 21-year-old batter said.
She added that England were making sure that they were really specific with what their plans were for each individual bowler — whether that be seam or spin.
Teams:
Pakistan: Omaima Sohail, Muneeba Ali, Sidra Amin, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Sidra Nawaz (wicket-keeper), Fatima Sana (captain), Rameen Shamim, Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, and Sadia Iqbal.
England: Tammy Beaumont, Amy Jones (wk), Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt (capt), Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sarah Glenn, Linsey Smith, and Em Arlott.
