Image Credit- ACC
At the Women’s Asia Cup, India continued to dominate Pakistan, winning their opening match in a windy Dambulla on Friday night by seven wickets. The reigning champions’ brilliant bowling display, which saw Pakistan dismissed for 108, set the stage for the match. After a quick opening partnership of 85 runs between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, India easily chased down the goal in 14.1 overs.
India currently leads the series against Pakistan 6-1 in wins and 12-3 overall in Twenty20 Internationals.
In the lead-up to the Asia Cup, India bowled five fast overs in the powerplay with Renuka Singh back in the side after missing the previous two Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa. In large part because to Pooja Vastrakar, it pegged Pakistan back early. She tried a short ball to start her first over and was hit for a boundary on the second delivery, but she stuck with it and it worked.
She took out Gull Feroza first, who opened instead of Sidra Amin, as she pulled too early, allowing Harmanpreet Kaur to finish the catch. Vastrakar removed Muneeba Ali for a run-a-ball 11 in her fourth over of the innings, the next one, with another short one, leaving Pakistan 26 for 2.
After ten overs, Pakistan was 53 for 3, with Nida Dar scoring four runs per ball and Sidra Amin scoring 24 off 30. However, there were no devils on the surface, and the spinners were also not receiving much rotation. Pakistan needed its captain to persevere and forge one significant alliance, but that didn’t happen.
Deepti Sharma, who had given up ten runs in her opening over, was brought into the attack after 11 overs, and she struck right away. Dar was going for a maximum when she came down the track, but her attempted lofted shot went off the toe of her bat and found D Hemalatha at long-on.
As soon as Renuka dismissed Sidra for a 35-ball 25 and then trapped Iram Javed lbw with the first delivery of the 13th over, Pakistan’s situation took a turn for the worse. They were down 61 for 6 at that point. Even though Tuba and Sana scored 22 runs apiece, it wasn’t enough.
Radha Yadav’s superb throw at the striker’s end resulted in a run-out during Deepti’s penultimate over, which handed India three more wickets.
India’s openers Shafali and Mandhana got them off to a flying start, hitting 57 in the powerplay, in sharp contrast to Pakistan’s innings. The two quickly got used to the surface’s slowness in the chase, even though it was used for the tournament’s opening match earlier in the day, as Nepal defeated UAE.
Pakistan conceded boundaries with both over-pitched and short deliveries as they struggled to get their line and length correct. In the opening over, Shafali struck the first of six fours with a flip to square leg. Left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal’s short balls were pushed through midwicket and sliced away through covers. She also hit two fours in her second over against Fatima Sana, a quick bowler.
Mandhana, who was dominant in the previous home series against South Africa, produced elegant cover drives and found boundaries with his back foot strikes. She hit five fours against legspinner Tuba Hassan following a boundary-free seventh over, but she was just five runs short of reaching her fifty.
Shafali was bowled by Syeda, the most efficient bowler for Pakistan with 2 for 9 in her three overs, after she had done her thing for 29 balls and made 40. India walked home shortly after that.