Dubai. India defeated archrivals Pakistan in the Women's T20 World Cup due to the brilliant performance of the bowlers led by medium pacer Arundhati Reddy (3 wickets for 19 runs) and useful innings by Shefali Verma (32) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (29 retired hurt). In their second match of Group A on Sunday, they registered their first win by beating them by six wickets.
India kept their semifinal hopes alive by scoring 108 runs for four wickets in 18.5 overs after restricting Pakistan to a modest score of 105 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs.
India has got its first win in this tournament but could the Indian team have chased the target with more speed, because the net run rate of the Indian team is negative and its next two matches are against Sri Lanka and Australia. If India had achieved this target by 11.2 overs then India's net run rate could have been positive.
Arundhati Reddy, who took three wickets in Pakistan's innings, received the Player of the Match award. While chasing the target, India once again lost opener Smriti Mandhana cheaply. Mandhana was out on the team's score of 18 after scoring seven runs.
Shafali then put on a crucial 43run partnership for the second wicket with Jemimah Rodrigues to put India on the path to victory. Shefali was out after scoring 32 runs in 35 balls with the help of three fours. In the 16th over of the innings, Fatima Sana gave India two wickets in two balls and brought excitement to the match. Fatima dismissed Jemimah and Richa Ghosh and reduced India's score to 80 runs for four wickets. Jemimah scored 23 runs on 28 balls.
After two wickets fell in quick succession, captain Harmanpreet took charge and retired hurt after scoring 29 runs in 24 balls. Harman went outside the leg stump to play Nida Dar's ball, played in the side out, got a fuller ball outside the off stump and finally went to open the face of the bat and lost her balance, Harman fell on the crease and now the physio has come on the field. Harman had fallen forward, but brought her back leg into the crease, it seemed as if her neck had been strained. Sajeevan Sajna gave victory to India by hitting a four as soon as he came.
Earlier, there was a time when it seemed that Pakistan team would not be able to play even the full 20 overs but in the last overs, Pakistan increased the pace. Shobhana Asha also missed two catches but overall India restricted Pakistan to a low score.
The match, which was played on a new pitch, was the 100th T20 match to be played in Dubai.
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first. But after losing Gul Firuza in the first over, Pakistan's innings could never get back on track and they lost wickets at regular intervals. Muniba Ali 17, Nida Dar 28, Captain Fatima Sana 13 and Syeda Arub Shah 14 were the batsmen who reached double figures.
For India, Arundhati Reddy took three wickets for 19 runs in four overs while Shreyanka Patil took two wickets for just 12 runs. Renuka Singh, Deepti Sharma and Shobhana Asha took one wicket each.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.