Vaibhav Mudgal
India Women’s Cricket Team started their Asia Cup campaign with a dominant performance against Pakistan Women. The match, held at Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium.
IND 109/3 (14.1 over )
PAK 108/10 (19.2 over )
Team India has made a bang in the Women’s Asia Cup 2024. India defeated arch-rival Pakistan by 7 wickets in its first match on Friday. Pakistan set a target of 109 runs at Dambulla, which India achieved by losing three wickets in 14.1 overs. Shefali Verma and Smriti Mandhana tested Pakistan but both missed their fifty. Both of them made a strong partnership of 85 runs for the first wicket.
Mandhana played an inning of 45 runs of 31 balls with 9 fours. She became the victim of Syeda Arub Shah in the tenth over. Syeda bowled Shefali in the 12th over, who scored 40 runs in 29 balls. He hit 6 fours and one six. Nashra Sandhu trapped Dayalan Hemlata (14 in 11 balls) in her net in the 13th over. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur remained unbeaten on 5 runs and Jemimah Rodrigues remained unbeaten on 3 runs.
Earlier, Pakistan’s innings was reduced to 108 runs in 19.2 overs. Sidra Amin scored the most runs. She played an innings of 25 runs in 35 balls, which included three fours. The poor condition of Pakistan can be gauged from the fact that seven players could not reach double figures. Pakistan team had a bad start after winning the toss and coming to bat. Openers Gul Firoza (5) and Muniba Ali (11) returned to the pavilion by the fourth over. Aliya Riaz (6) and captain Nidar Dar (8) did not last long. Tooba Hasan scored 22 runs in 19 balls. Fatima Sana remained unbeaten after scoring 22 runs in 16 balls. He took Pakistan beyond 100 by hitting one four and two sixes. Deepti Sharma took maximum three wickets for India. Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar and Shreyanka Patil took two kills each. India’s second encounter in the tournament will be with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday.