India beats arch-rival Pakistan to sail into finals of Women Asia Cup

Kuala Lumpur, June 9: Continuing its good run in women Asia Cup, defending champions India registered a commanding victory over arch-rival Pakistan by 7 wickets and entered into the finals of the tournament. Notably, the women Asia Cup is being held in the Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur.

 

In a low scoring match, the Indian women team chased down Pakistan’s total of 72 runs with ease. India defeated Pakistan by seven wickets and 23 balls to spare and booked a berth in finals of Asia Cup. Opting to bat first, Pakistan was not able to stand in front of Indian bowling attack as only two batsmen of neighbouring country could score double-digit.

Opener Nahida Khan and middle order batsmen Sana Mir were able to reach double-digit score as Indian bowlers destroyed Pakistani batting line-up. As many as four Pakistani batters scored in single digits, and they eventually managed 72/7 in their allotted 20 overs. From the Indian side, Ekta Bisht took three wickets after conceding only 13 runs in her 4-over spell. Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma bagged a wicket each.

In a reply, Indian women too got off to the poor start as Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma lost their wickets in a very quick succession. India was struggling at 5/2 at one stage, but skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana added 65 runs for the third wicket to help the team seal the win. Harmanpreet remained unbeaten on 34 while Smriti scored 38 runs.

Ekta Bisht was named the Player of the Match for her splendid spell of 4-0-14-3. Earlier, in the tournament, India defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets and seven balls to spare.