Pakistan captain Fatima Sana raised quite a few eyebrows in the Women’s Asia Cup match against India at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday. The medium pacer tried to lead by taking three wickets after her team scored 55 runs. However, the biggest talking point came when Sana fieryly dismissed India’s opening batter Shafali Verma on the third ball of the second over of the innings.
Sana hit a long delivery and the ball bounced a little more than the young Indian opener expected. She tried to hit it through the leg but only managed to hit the leading edge which sent it back towards the bowler.
The Pakistan captain then made no mistake by catching the ball. She then did not hesitate to show Shafali the way back to the pavilion. However, the opening Indian batter did not react and simply walked back to the dressing room. Shafali scored 12 runs from 6 balls with one four and one boundary.
In the match against Pakistan, Shafali became the youngest batter to pass the 3000-run mark in a women’s T20I. She also became the fastest to reach this milestone, marking a special day for herself. Shafali reached the feat at the age of 22 years and 220 days, beating Ireland’s Gabi Lewis, who was 24 years and 347 days old when she reached 3000 T20I runs.
She also surpassed the 3,000-run mark in just 2,182 balls, surpassing the previous record of 2,321 runs by Australia great and former captain Alyssa Healy.
How did relations between India and Pakistan develop?
The match between India and Pakistan began with Fatima winning the toss and choosing to bat. However, the batters did not live up to their decision as they were bowled out for 55 in 18.1 overs. For India, Sri Charani and Prema Rawat scalped three wickets each while Deepti Sharma returned with two.
India went into chase with all guns blazing as Shafali hit a six from the very first delivery. However, Fatima then tried to fight by overthrowing the highest order of India, Shafali, Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal. However, in the end, Harmanpreet Kaur (18*) and Deepti Sharma (12*) ensured India returned home with seven wickets in hand and 68 balls to spare.