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India Women, on Sunday, October 6 registered a vital win by six wickets against arch-rivals, Pakistan in their Group A match in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Dubai International cricket Stadium, Dubai. The Women in Blue, who had earlier suffered a thumping against New Zealand Women in their tournament opener, are on the edge of missing out the playoffs berth after their daunting defeat.
However, they bounced back in the game to better their head-to-head record to 6-2 against Pakistan in Women’s T20 World Cups, their skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur suffered an injury in the do-or-die fixture. With the team needing just two runs to win the game on Sunday in Dubai, the skipper was forced to leave the field with neck pain. Notably, the incident occurred in the 19th over when Harmanpreet lost her balance while trying to dab it down off Nida Dar. Soon afterwards, she was seen clutching her neck in pain, requiring immediate attention from the physio.
Smriti Mandhana on Harmanpreet Kaur’s injury during IND vs PAK WT20 WC 2024
Although, the exact status of the injury is still to be disclosed by the team members, she had to leave the field with S Sajana hitting the winning runs for the side and taking them to a six-wicket win. After the completion of the match, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, who stood in place of the skipper, opened up on Harmanpreet Kaur’s injury.
“Too soon to say anything; the medics are looking at it. Hopefully she is alright. As a bowling unit, we were very disciplined and in the field we were good too. We could have done with a better start with the bat, but we will take this,” Smriti Mandhana said. However, with no clarity on Harmanpreet’s injury, it is to be seen whether she will get fit to play the next match, where India Women take on Sri Lanka Women on Wednesday, October 9 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
How can India qualify for semi-final of Women’s T20 World Cup 2024?
With this important victory, the Indian women’s cricket team jumped to fourth place with two points in their first two matches. They are behind Pakistan on the basis of the net run rate (-1.277) being considerably worse than (0.555) of their arch-rivals, who are behind the Trans-Tasman countries in third place.
Since New Zealand and Australia have won their first match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, they are in first and second place respectively on the points table in Group A with impressive net run rates. With only two teams slated to make it through to the semi-final of the tournament, India needs to win their remaining two matches against Sri Lanka and Australia next week with convincing margins. Following that, the Women in Blue will be needing a lot of other results in the Group A to go in their favour, to make the knockout stage of the tournament.
