India took on Pakistan in the 2nd Match of Group A in the Women’s Asia Cup 2024 at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium in Dambulla on July 19, 7 PM IST. Team India registered a comfortable win over Pakistan by 7 wickets. The reigning champions’ brilliant bowling display, which saw Pakistan brushed aside for 108, set the atmosphere for the match.
After a quick opening partnership of 85 runs between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, India easily chased down the target in 14.1 overs.
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first sending their opening pair of Muneeba Ali and Gull Feroza against the bowling attack spearheaded by Renuka Singh. Although Feroza managed to get the first boundary in the second over but the same over by Pooja Vastrakar scalped her wicket much earlier in the game.
Sidra Amin and Ali, both managed to hook down a couple of boundaries in the third over which was extended further by Ali to one more four in the next over owing to the powerplay conditions but finally succumbed to Vastrakar’s spell-bounding spell.
Aliya Riaz, the new down and Amin collected a couple of fours more in the last over of the powerplay keeping in mind the field setting is going to be different from the next over. Things went for India according to the plans as Pakistan started feeling the pressure of the early fall of wickets.
And that followed the collapse of the women in green as the next down was Riaz as Shreyanka Patil pulled the trigger in the eighth over. Sidra Amin, after much ado in the middle, finally managed to get the much-awaited boundary in the tenth over but Deepti Sharma had her day in the twelfth over to dismiss Nida Dar at 8 off 11.
This brought a tide of fall of wickets as Renuka Singh choked the Pakistan lower middle order with two back-to-back wickets in the names of Sidra Amin and Iram Javed. Fresh on the crease were Tuba Hassan and Fatima Sana trying to fight back from this point of the inning which finally brought some confidence to at least go past 100.
The fourteenth over concluded with a four from the bat of Tuba Hassan which was followed by her another in the next over with a similar stroke after Sana beat skipper Harmanpreet Kaur at mid-off. Another from Hassan in the 16th over and she had to finally leave for the pavilion at 22 off 19 as Deepti Sharma got the breakthrough for her side in the 18th over.
Sharma was excellent with her spell as the 18th over saw two more dismissals, Syeda Aroob Shah getting run out and Nashra Sandhu being caught by wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh. One more wicket to go to get all-down and Fatima Sana was fighting to reach past 100 and eventually doing so with her two gigantic maximums in the 19th over that further saw Sadia Iqbal getting bowled out on Patil’s second ball of the last over to restrict Pakistan at 108.
And there were Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, the Indian opening giants walking down the pavilion to kick-start the chase that commenced well on a positive note with Verma’s four on the third ball of Sadia Iqbal which was contemplated well by Mandhana in the next over with a fantastic four off Sana’s second delivery.
Verma tried to make ultimate use of the of the powerplay and show her stroke-play with two boundaries in the third over followed by one in the fourth over that was stretched further by Mandhana with four more. And the powerplay finally came to a decisive end with Verma’s two fours in the fifth over followed by Mandhana’s similar strokes and the first maximum of the chase in the sixth over to set the score at 42 for no loss.
Mandhana was hiking up on the hills with runs falling short of her strokes as she smashed Hassan for 21 runs in an over collecting five fours single-handedly in the eighth over but fortunes had their ways different to get her finally dismissed in the tenth over at her 45 (31) as Aroob Shah got the breakthrough for her team.
New down Dayalan Hemalatha made her stance clear that she had walked down to bag the match as early as possible without any delay as she stroke valiantly in the 11th over to smash three consecutive boundaries but that was followed by another dismissal in the name of Verma at her 40 (29) as Shah bounced back once more.
Hemalatha too succumbed to Sandhu in the very next over but things were already done and undone by the Indian openers as the win just needed a couple of singles and a double more to walk past the victory line which was finally trotted on the first ball of the 15th over with a single by Jemimah Rodrigues.
Brief scores: India vs Pakistan Match 2 of Women’s Asia Cup 2024
Pakistan 108/10 in 19.2 overs (Sidra Ameen 25, Tuba Hassan 22, Fatima Sana 22*; Deepti Sharma 3-20, Renuka Thakur 2-14) lost to India 109/3 in 14.1 overs (Smriti Mandhana 45, Shafali Verma 40; Syeda Aroob 2-9) by 7 wickets.
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