Neither Pakistan nor India progressed beyond the group stage of the Women’s T20 World Cup. India’s prospects of making it to the semi-finals relied on the outcome of Pakistan’s game against New Zealand; had also Pakistan won that match, India under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, would have made it to the last four. They did manage to bowl out New Zealand for only 110/6 in 20 overs, however, they then batted for a measly 56 in reply – the second lowest score ever in the Women’s T20 World Cup. What was even more embarrassing was that Pakistan dropped more than eight catches at least.
The performance of Team Pakistan was criticized by the former cricketer Basit Ali.
“Did it appear like a full-strength Pakistan cricket team? No resembling a team who plays cricket, forget it. It was more like Pakistan women’s cricket team is led by a badminton player, it clearly reflects how the team performed. 11-12 catches dropped, all sitters. Dabbly, dabbly, dabbly! Never in my life have I come across such a side. I have lost count of how many instances occurred when ten matches were lost with such abysmal fielding. Wasim disappointed. He altered the order of batting. For what? You have allowed them to claim victory rest assured. They were all sent back because of poor stroke-play. Fatima Sana’s father passed away, but she gave a better performance than everyone else,” went the words of Basit Ali on his YouTube.
“Everyone knew about the strength of our team. However, I found it difficult to sit through the match quite painful. It wasn’t about us being defeated, it was the way we did that.”
Following the feat, India’s Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh received accolades for their great displays in the ongoing ICC Women’s T20 World Cup as they climbed the ICC Women’s T20I Bowler Rankings.
In the T20 World Cup, the two responsibles took 11 wickets for India. Deepti jumped to one position while Renuka improved by two positions in the latest ranking. The two now rank similarly in the T20I bowlers’ list in third place, after England’s Sophie Ecclestone and Sadia Iqbal of Pakistan.
In the current competition, Ecclestone managed to take four wickets over the course of three games. She increased her gap over second-placed Iqbal to 19 rating points. Carrying forward the good form, Deepti and Renuka are placed in out of reach positions in the bowler’s ranking with 740 points apiece.
Australia’s seasoned statistician Megan Schutt climbed four places to take up the sixth position while South African left-arm orthodox bowler Nonkululeko Mlaba ascended six places to occupy the seventh position.
