After a disappointing loss against New Zealand in their first match, India finally opened their account in the ongoing 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup. The Women in Blue defeated arch-rival Pakistan by six wickets at the Dubai International Stadium, to got their first win of the tournament. Arundhati Reddy, shone with the ball for India by registering the figures 3/19 in her spell. The pacer was awarded player of the match for her match-winning bowling performance.
Coming to bat first after losing the toss, Pakistan had a poor start as they lost their first wicket at the score one after the end of the first over. Renuka Singh gave India the first breakthrough as Gull Fenza went for a duck. After a few overs, Sidra Ameen (8 off 11) as Pakistan Women lost their second wicket for 25 runs in five overs. Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil didn’t let batters to play freely. Along with Arundhati, Shreyanka also impressed with her bowling as she registered figures of 2/12 along with one maiden over in her four overs to help restrict Pakistan at 105/8 at the end of their 20 overs.
Steady knocks by Shafali, Jemimah and Harmapreet took India past the finishing line
Coming to chase the winning total, India got a steady start before their first wicket at the score of 18 runs in 4.3 overs, with Smriti Mandhana getting out for just 7(16) runs. After that, After that, Jemimah Rodrigues (23 off 28) and Shafali Verma (32 off 35) took India back in the match with a partnership of 43 runs for the second wicket. However, Pakistan bowlers Indian team some trouble as they reduced the Women in Blue to 80/4 with 26 runs still needed from 27 balls.
From that point onwards, Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who was still at the crease, took India to the brink of an important win. However, the right-hander injured her neck while trying to save a stumping, and was retired hurt on 29(24) with two runs still needed from the last eight deliveries. Then, Sajeevan Sajana smashed a boundary on her first ball as India won the match with seven balls to spare.
