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On Sunday, October 6, the Indian women’s cricket team defeated Pakistan by six wickets in a high octane Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 clash, to register their first win of the tournament. At the Dubai International Stadium, the Women in Blue restricted Pakistan to a paltry score of 105/8 with Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil sharing five wickets between them before their batters managed to chase the target in 18.5 overs.
Notably, after winning the toss, Fatima Sana, the captain of Pakistan, decided to bat first, but they lost two of their top order wickets inside the powerplay. The Pakistan batting lineup never got out of second gear throughout their innings, losing wickets at regular intervals, and despite Nida Dar top scoring with 28 off 34, they managed to get past only the 100-run total in the last over of their batting effort.
India needed to win against Pakistan to have the best chance at making the semi-final of the tournament
For the Indian cricket team, all their five bowlers conceded runs at an economy of six or less, with Arundhati Reddy registering figures of 3/19, while Shreyanka Patil took two wickets with a maiden to her name. After losing their opening match by 58 runs against New Zealand in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, India desperately needed to get the better of their arch-rivals, to have the best possible chance at making the semi-final stage.
During the run chase, India lost the wicket of Smriti Mandhana early in the piece on just 7 off 16 after Sadia Iqbal dismissed her with Tuba Hassan taking the catch. For the second-wicket, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues put together a 43-run stand, but the slowness of their scoring rate prompted the Indian opener to take one risk too many, losing her wicket in the process for 32 runs in 35 balls.
Shortly after, Fatima Sana took back-to-back wickets of Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh, to give Pakistan some hope. Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur got retired hurt at the closing stages of the match, but she had done more than enough to ensure India got past the finishing line.
