ICC T20 WWC: India beat Pakistan by six wickets
So India chase down the small target of 106 with a bit of huff and puff, but they were always in control of the game. Their bowlers setup the game for them as Arundhati Reddy picked career best figures of 3/19, while all the others chipped in with wickets as well. In reply, India lost Smriti Mandhana early and then were very tepid in the powerplay, ending at 25/1.
However, Shafali Varma switched gears after as she got to nearly a run a ball, and Jemimah too got into her groove with some sweeps and reverse sweeps. Shafali however holed out after a good start, and then Fatima Sana struck twice in two balls to leave India in a limbo.
However, the Indian skipper Harmanpreet held fort from one end to ensure there were no last minute nerves. Harmanpreet went down injured, holding her neck with two runs left to spare, and then S Sajana came out to complete the game. Stick around for the presentations…
Smriti Mandhana (standing in for Harmanpreet Kaur): (On Harman’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. (On net run rate) We were thinking about it but me and Shafali weren’t able to time it well. So we didn’t want to get to a place where we were chasing the game, but NRR is surely in our heads. This game will give us some momentum and hopefully we can keep going in this tournament.
Fatima Sana: Weren’t up to the mark with batting. We were atleast 10-15 runs. Hopefully, next match we can do well. I enjoyed playing against the Indians, enjoyed my time here
Arundhati Reddy | Player of the Match: I’ve been bowling with the new ball, and had to be prepared for the powerplay. We had a good powerplay, Renuka too bowled very well. I have worked a lot on my T20 bowling, in all stages of the game. I’ll be working even harder now. It was a day game and it was pretty hot, but we are used to this weather. I just wanted to hit the stumps more, use my variations and slower ones. That has been working for me.