India opened its Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2024 title defence on Friday with a seven wicket win against Pakistan at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Sri Lanka.
It was a field day for the Indian bowlers on the pitch tonight as they restricted the Pakistanis to just 108. Both the spinners and the pacers shared the load as Deepti Sharma starred with three wickets, which included scalping skipper Nida Dar.
India openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma made it look easy as they posted a 85-run partnership before Syeda Arooba Shah scalped Smriti in the 10th over.
The Women in Green won the toss and chose to bat first. However, they were dealt with an early blow when opener Gull Feroza was caught at short mid-on by India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur off a Pooja Vastrakar delivery.
Just two overs later, Pooja picked up her second scalp of the match after forcing Muneeba Ali to pull a short ball, but the Pakistani’s shot landed safely in Jemimah Rodrigues’s hands, who was positioned at mid-off.
It was India’s spinners who were making sure that Pakistan’s top-order continued to collapse.
Radha Yadav and Shreyanka Patil were brought in after the powerplay, and this brought dividends soon enough. In the eighth over, Shreyanka took Aliya Riaz’s wicket after the batter tried to flick it off her pads but instead, hit it towards a ready Jemimah at mid-wicket. Aliya scored just six off 11 balls.
It was Deepti who starred with the ball once again after she removed skipper Nida Dar to pick up her first wicket of the night. Nida walked back to the dugout with only eight runs on the board off 11 balls.
Deepti, who was adjudged as the ‘Player of the Match’ also scalped a well-settled Tuba Hassan (22, 19b) and Nashra Sandhu, who went for a golden duck.
There were glimpses of hope from Pakistan’s batting order, with Sidra Ameen and Tuba coming in with important knocks, but they too were removed before they could settle.
At the end, it was Fatima Sana who added some runs, including two sixes in the penultimate over, to get Pakistan over the 100-run mark. Shreyanka wrapped up the opponent’s innings by bowling out Sadia Iqbal.
The Indian batters made quick work of the chase after openers Smriti (45, 31b) and Shafali (40, 29b) all but confirmed the Women in Blue’s victory. Spinner Syeda was one of Pakistan’s better performances as scalped both Smriti and Shafali.
India next plays UAE on Sunday, while Pakistan faces Nepal.
