Pakistan got off to a poor start with the bat, losing Javeria Khan (8), Muneeba Ali (12), Nida Dar (0) and Sidra Ameen (11) cheaply. They were in trouble at 68/4 at the start of the 13th over. However, Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof (68* off 55) and Ayesha Naseem (43* off 25) added an unbroken 81 runs for the fifth wicket to lift the batting side. Maroof struck seven fours, while Naseem hit two fours and as many sixes
In the chase, India Women lost Yastika Bhatia for 17 and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for 16. However, Shafali Verma scored 33 of 25, before Jemimah Rodrigues (53* off 38) and Richa Ghosh (31* off 20) took India to a famous victory. India Women registered their highest chase in the T20 World Cup and the second-best ever in the ICC event. Thank to Rodrigues and Ghosh’s unbeaten 58-run stand, India got home with seven wickets in hand.
Speaking after being named Player of the Match, India Women skipper Rodrigues said, “I don’t know what to say. I knew building partnerships, taking it deep we’d end up chasing. Richa and I have built a partnership against Bangladesh, and we could do this today. This innings is really special to me, I haven’t been getting runs for a while but I’ve stuck to his processes.”
The batter dedicated the innings to her parents who were present at the stadium. She added, “God is grateful, he takes care of the rest. I want to dedicate this to my parents, they are here at the stadium. This knock goes out to them.”
On her match-winning partnership with Ghosh, she said, “We just needed 10 an over, we were going over by over and we knew they would bowl a loose ball so that is what we had to punish. We knew we’d win if we stayed till the end. We’re very happy we’ve won this, momentum is on our side and now we just need to do the simple things correctly and consistently.”
India will next face West Indies in the next T20 World Cup 2023 match at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday, February 15.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
