No walk in the Pak
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s years of experience spared India’s blushes as they huffed and puffed to a six-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan, keeping their semifinal hopes alive in the Women’s T20 World Cup.
India’s batters made 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 Harmanpreet retired hurt when two runs were required for victory, Sajana Sajeevan, playing her first game, finished it off with a boundary.
I have been bowling with the new ball lately. We had a good powerplay, Renuka and myself. We got a good start with the ball. I have worked a lot on my T20 bowling in all stages and it is helping me. I was trying to attack the stumps and that was my focus. Arundhati Reddy, player of the match
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This was India’s 7th victory against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. They have suffered just one loss so far. In their head-to-head record in T20Is, India have now beaten Pakistan 13 times, while losing 3 games
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The Indian innings had five fours and only Harmanpreet had a strike rate of over 100 among the top six batters
The defensive approach by opener Shafali Verma (32 off 35 balls) and new No. 3 Jemimah Rodrigues (23 off 28 balls) meant that India could not boost their net run rate, which could prove very costly in the larger context of making it to the last-four stage. India would need to beat both Australia and Sri Lanka by comfortable margins to harbour any hopes of a semifinal berth.
The entire Indian innings had only five boundaries and none of the top three looked like getting a move on. The chase was not exactly a cakewalk as Smriti Mandhana (7 off 16 balls) was out early while Shafali and Jemimah concentrated on taking singles.
The running between the wickets wasn’t impressive as some easy doubles and a sure triple was not even tried, probably due to the sapping heat. Even as Jemimah showed some interest in pushing fielders, Shafali’s poor fitness came in the way.
Shafali could hit only three shots to the fence in her knock and she increased the pressure on the batting unit with the below-par effort. Jemimah’s forte isn’t power as she relies more on her timing and the ability to find gaps.
Once Fatima Sana removed both Jemimah and Richa Ghosh (0) off successive deliveries, the onus was on Harmanpreet to take the team past home.
Back at No. 4 after being promoted to No. 3 in the opening game, Harmanpreet manoeuvred the field to keep the scoreboard ticking. Harmanpreet, who hit just one boundary, was the only Indian batter in the top six with a strike rate of over 100.
Harmanpreet almost saw India home in the company of Deepti Sharma but she sprained her neck while turning awkwardly to avoid being stumped and walked back retired hurt.
Earlier, the Indian bowling unit fired in unison, restricting a clueless Pakistan to a lowly 105/8.
Having conceded 160 against New Zealand on a slow track under lights in their opener, the Indian bowlers read the pitch well, and more importantly, took the pace off the deliveries to make stroke-making all the more difficult.
Such was their control that India’s bowlers were able to deliver 58 dot balls. Seamers Renuka Singh (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 Pakistan batters on tenterhooks.
Leg-spinner Asha Sobhana (1/24) went for a few boundaries but got rival skipper Fatima with a big leg-break as the batter was brilliantly snapped by Richa Ghosh behind the stumps.
Brief scores: Pakistan: 105/8 in 20 overs (Nida 28; Arundhati 3/19, Shreyanka 2/12); India: 106/4 in 18.5 overs (Shafali 32, Harmanpreet 29; Fatima 2/23).
