Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s years of experience saved India from a huge upset as they managed to pull off a 6-wicket victory over arch-rivals Pakistan, keeping their semi-final hopes alive in the Women’s T20 World Cup Sunday.
Having conceded 160 against New Zealand on a slow track in their opener, the Indian bowlers read the pitch well, and more importantly, took the pace off deliveries to make stroke-making all the more difficult.
Such was their control that Indian bowlers were able to deliver 58 dot balls.
Seamers Renuka Singh Thakur (1/23) and Arundhati Reddy (3/19) neither erred in line nor in length while off-spinners Deepti Sharma (1/24) and Shreyanka Patil (2/12) got enough grip and bounce to keep the Pakistani batters on tenterhooks.
India bowled incredibly well in the marquee clash
Renuka bowled a tight first over and her inswinger had Gull Feroza (0) bowled through the gate.
Deepti, who gave a much better account of herself, albeit against an inferior batting lineup, decreased the pace of her deliveries and also flighted a few.
Pakistan managed only 29 for 2 in the powerplay and the Indian bowlers increased their stranglehold on the opposition batters with only Nida Dar’s 28 providing some resistance to take the team past 100-run mark.
Indian batters adopted a defensive approach
Indian batters made a heavy weather of a paltry 106-run target as it required a 24-ball-29 from their experienced skipper to eke out the crucial win.
After Smriti Mandhana lost her wicket early, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues adopted a defensive approach. This is one of the main reasons why India wasn’t able to make a huge difference to their net run-rate despite being given a modest total to chase.
Despite the victory, India’s NRR is currently -1.217 and they remain below Pakistan, who are in third place with NRR of -0.555.
Difficult path ahead for the Women in Blue
India would need to beat both Australia and Sri Lanka by comfortable margins to harbour any hopes of a semi-final berth.
The entire Indian innings had only five boundaries and none of the top three looked like getting a move on.
Harmanpreet Kaur retired hurt after playing a crucial knock of 29 runs off 24 deliveries. Sajana Sajeevan, playing her first game, finished it off with a boundary.
