An incredible match was witnessed! India women beat Pakistan women by seven wickets in the opening match of their campaign at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town.
Chasing 150 to win, India got off to a steady start and had a fruitful powerplay, but opener Yastika Bhatia fell after a laborious 17 off 20 balls. On the other hand, Shafali Verma scored quickly, advancing the Indian scoreboard past 50 in just 7 overs. The dismissal of Verma, who came close to the halfway point of the innings, dealt India a blow. With 85 runs needed from the final 10 overs, India was left with a difficult task.
Following that, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues helped the women in Blue by calming the ship. India is now in a difficult situation as they need 55 runs from the final six overs due to the departure of their captain. However, India was able to reach the target with seven balls remaining thanks to Rodrigues' steady play and the big hits from Richa Ghosh later in the innings.
Earlier, India's bowlers were accurate right away because Deepti Sharma was the first strike in the PowerPlay, but the women in green made a respectable comeback thanks to Muneeba Ali and Bismah Maroof. However, Pakistan lost quick wickets after the Powerplay as Radha Yadav and Pooja Vastrakar struggled in back-to-back overs. After that, Bismah Maroof's fluent fifty and Ayesha Naseem's ferocious blows helped Pakistan reach 149/4 in 20 overs.
Pakistan, on the other hand, decided to bat after winning the toss. The choice to bat first was made after examining the dry wicket, according to Pakistani captain Bismah Maroof. Harmanpreet added that if she had won the toss, she would have chosen to bat first.
This match received a lot of hype, and it lived up to it.
In the end, India's depth in the batting order made the difference as they won the first match of their World T20 campaign.
Despite their outstanding performance with the bat, Pakistan will undoubtedly feel hard done by because they simply were unable to secure the necessary number of wickets to restrict India's innings.
India will now next play the West Indies on February 15, while Pakistan will play Ireland that day in a game they absolutely must win.
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