NEW DELHI, Mar 19 Indian women’s cricket team today paid the price for a poor batting display against arch-rivals Pakistan, losing the crucial group league fixture by two runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in the ICC World T20, here this evening.
After posting a meagre 96 for seven, India started badly in their defence but pulled the plug when it mattered and reduced Pakistan to 77 for six in 16 overs when the heavens opened up. The D/L par score was 75 at that point of time which enabled Sana Mir’s girls to remain two runs ahead.
At that stage, Pakistan needed 20 off 24 balls to win, but the downpour brought proceedings to a grinding halt and the match never started within the cut-off time of 6:55 pm.
However India lost the match today because of their batswomen, who were simply unable to score of a disciplined Pakistan bowling attack that forced the hosts to play dot balls equivalent to 10 overs.
In pursuit of the paltry target of 97, Nahida Khan (14) and Sidra Ameen (26) gave Pakistan a rollicking start and reached the 50-run mark in 10th over for the loss of just three wickets.
That’s when India came back into the match with some tight bowling but in the end what did them in were some poor fielding and a missed stumping chance by Sushma Verma off Muneeba Ali (12 not out).
Had she pulled off that regulation stumping, Pakistan would have been seven down and as per D/L par score India would have won the match by one run.
Earlier sent into bat, Indian eves found it tough to rotate the strike, leave aside hitting boundaries and sixes against some disciplined bowling and brilliant fielding from Pakistan to manage a paltry 96 for seven. Indian batswomen’s struggle can be gauged from the fact that they scored just seven runs for the loss of two wickets in the six overs of Powerplay.
Pakistan skipper Sana Mir gave the new ball to Anam Amin (1/9), who picked up four wickets against West Indies in the last match and the left-arm spinner lived upto her skipper’s expectations when she dismissed opener VR Vanitha in her second and innings’ third over caught at mid-wicket Asmavia Iqbal.
Right-arm pacer Iqbal then had Smriti Mandhana leg before in the next over to reduce the hosts to 5 for 2.
In a real spot of bother, captain Mithali Raj (16 off 35) and Harmanpreet Kaur (16 off 29) tried their best to stabilise the innings but failed to get going scoring only 29 runs off 47 balls to increase the pressure on the batswomen, who followed them.
In total the Indian girls found the fence only six times and cleared the rope just once. Such was Pakistan’s disciplined bowling effort that it took India 7.4 overs to find their first boundary, which came off Mithali’s bat. (PTI)
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