In the arch-rival, India vs Pakistan clash in the Women’s Asia Cup 2024, the Women in Blue emerged victorious after their bowlers executed an outstanding performance in Dambulla.
Deepti Sharma played a vital role in restricting Pakistan women for 108. She bagged a couple of crucial wickets in the middle order and broke the back of the Pakistan Women’s batting lineup.
Deepti Sharma’s triple wicket haul includes the dismissals of Pakistan skipper Nida Dar, Tuba Hassan and Nashra Sandhu. Apart from Deepti, Renuka Singh and Shreyanka Patil played a key role in folding the opponents for a low score.
Renuka Singh and Shreyanka each bagged a couple of wickets at an economy of 3.50 and 4.20 respectively and pressured Pakistan’s batting unit. Apart from executing an impressive bowling attack, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. made an outstanding performance with bat and guided India to register their first victory of the tournament.
An emphatic win for #TeamIndia as they claim victory in the #GreatestRivalry 😍
A brilliant all-round performance by the #WomenInBlue marks a winning start to their #WomensAsiaCup2024 campaign!
Next up 👉 #INDvUAE | SUN, JUL 2, 1:30 PM | #WomensAsiaCupOnStar | Only available in… pic.twitter.com/VJRr8T5NIQ
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 19, 2024
Speaking of the match, winning the toss, Pakistan decided to bat first where Gull Feroza and Muneeba Ali opened the inning. The duo who were in charge of scoring a decent opening partnership failed against the aggressive Indian bowling attack.
Pooja Vastrakar in the second over drew the first blood for Pakistan women by dismissing Gull Feroza for just five runs. Again the same bowler in her second over struck again and bagged the wicket of Muneeba Ali for 11 runs.
With the cheap dismissal of the opening batters, Pakistan’s middle-order players get under pressure to build a partnership to avoid a nasty start for the Asia Cup 2024 campaign.
But Indian bowlers never allowed the Women in Green to settle in the crease. At the end of the eighth over, Shreyanka Patil dismissed Aliya Riaz and broke the partnership between Ameen and Riaz which survived for four overs.
While Pakistan Women expected a saviour knock from their captain, Deepti Sharma scattered their hope by dismissing Nida Dar for just eight which restricted them to score 60 for four wicket loss at the end of 12 overs.
With a tight bowling spell from India, Pakistan’s batting order collapsed like a pack of cards and folded for 108 runs after losing ten wickets with four legal deliveries remaining to bowl.
While chasing, India women made an excellent opening partnership by building 85 runs for the first wicket. Indian star opening batters Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana opened the inning and showed supremacy over the opponent bowlers.
India lost their first wicket after scoring nearly eighty percent of the needed runs. Syeda Aroob Shah broke the partnership by dismissing Mandhana for 45 runs in the 10th over. Soon after her dismissal, Shafali Verma too lost her wicket to the same bowler after scoring 40 runs.
At the time of Shafali’s dismissal, India was in need of just eight which the remaining batters scored comfortably and led India to beat Pakistan Women by 7 wickets.
India Women will play their next game of the tournament against United Arab Emirates Women on July 21 in Dambulla while the defeated Pakistan will face Nepal Women to play their next game of the tournament on July 21 in Dambulla.
Notably a double header match will be played on the day(July 21) with India facing UAE at 2:00 PM and Pakistan facing Nepal at 7:00 PM IST.
