The Indian women’s team beat arch-rivals Pakistan by seven wickets in the Women’s Asia Cup thanks to the exceptional bowling of spinners Sri Charani and Prema Rawat.
IMAGE: Prema Rawat celebrates at goal during the Women’s Asian Cup match against Pakistan in Dubai on Saturday. Photo: BCCI Women/X
Key Points
- India recorded a dominant seven-wicket win over Pakistan in the Women’s Asia Cup.
- Spinners Sri Charani and Prema Rawat took three wickets each to destroy Pakistan’s line-up.
- Pakistan were bowled out with a record low T20I score of 55 runs in 18.1 overs.
Spinners Sri Charani and Prema Rawat caused havoc with the ball as dominant India beat Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided Women’s Asia Cup match in Dubai on Saturday.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who became the first international captain (male or female) to lead the country in 150 T20I matches, was delighted as her spinners bowled out Pakistan for 55 in just 18.1 overs – the lowest ever score in the shortest format.
Accordingly, she ended the game with a royal six.
Indian spinners – 22-year-old orthodox left-arm spinner Charani (3/7 in 4 overs), 24-year-old leg-break bowler Prema (3/9 in 4 overs) and part-time wrist spinner Shafali Verma (1/10 in 3 overs) completely dismantled the Pakistan batting.
Deepti Sharma (2/5 in 3.1 overs) completed the formalities.
India’s dominant bowling performance
IMAGE: Shafali Verma celebrates Muniba Ali’s dismissal. Photo: BCCI Women/X
India finished the chase in 8.4 overs despite losing Shafali Verma (12), Smriti Mandhan (9) and Pratik Rawal (4) cheaply to Pakistan captain Fatima Sana.
Harmanpreet, who struck 18 not outs, was the top performer in the low-scoring contest. She and Deepti (12 not out) calmed the Indian team after some initial jitters, losing three early wickets.
The Indian women were expecting little competition ahead of the semi-finals, but the Pakistani batters found themselves in such dire straits that a “no contest” was declared again.
In the history of the T20 Asia Cup, India has a 7–1 record against Pakistan.
Having decided to bat earlier, Pakistan did start to make a comfortable 27 without loss in just over four overs, with openers Muneeba Ali (13) and Shawaal Zulfiqar (14) facing the seamers with ease, but none of the other batters were able to reach double figures in an embarrassing display of ineptitude.
The two wrist spinners, Shafali and Prema, made no attempt to turn and continued to attack the stumps with relentless precision. By the time Deepti came out to serve, the Pakistani women had already given up.
In 18.1 overs, Indian bowlers scored an astonishing 78 runs.
IMAGE: Sri Charani sent Pakistan reeling in the middle overs with excellent figures of 3/7 in four overs. Photo: BCCI Women/X
Pakistan collapsed in the middle overs
One day Harmanpreet Kaur, captaining the team for the 150th time in T20Is, felt the pitch was offering a turn, she immediately introduced the spinners and reaped the dividends. Suddenly Pakistan lost six wickets by adding nine runs and fell to 36 for 6 after the end of 10 overs.
Strangled as he ran, Muniba tried to crawl to the leg stump to make room, but was beaten completely.
Charani then came into play, producing a remarkable turn and rebound at the same time. Seagull Feroza (0) tried to hit her against the turn but was caught at short third while Zulfiqar missed wide and was adjudged plumb ahead.
Ayesha Zafar (2) was strangled while she was trying to break the shackles but she easily caught Harmanpreet in the middle.
Sadaf Shamas (3) tried to get out on a tricky track against Prema, who hit it straight and hit the stumps.
Pakistan’s biggest hope, captain Fatima Sana (0), received a classic off-break from Deepti Sharma that hit her on the pads and could have hit the mid-leg line.
Eyman Fatima (5) and Umm-e Hani (6) were involved in a terrible mix-up that resulted in the former being bowled out at the non-striker’s end.
Umm-e Hani also died, as did many of her teammates who tried to grab the ball without even having the slightest idea of the duration of the delivery. By then the contest was over before India even came out to bat.