India started their 2024 Women’s T20 Asia Cup campaign with a comprehensive seven-wicket win over Pakistan at the Dambulla International Stadium in Sri Lanka on Friday.
Having been asked to field first, the Indian bowlers bowled out Pakistan for 108 with four balls to spare in the first innings.
It was pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who called the shots in the powerplay as she struck twice to remove openers Gull Feroza and Muneeba Ali cheaply as Pakistan tottered to 37/2 after six overs.
Later, the spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Shreyanka Patil, and Radha Yadav combined to dry up the run flow.
Sharma struck thrice to finish with figures of 3-20, while Patil grabbed two wickets of her own to finish with 2-14.
Renuka Thakur also proved to be effective in the middle overs with two wickets as the Pakistan batters crumbled under pressure.
It took a late cameo from Fatima Sana, who scored an unbeaten 22 off just 16 deliveries with a boundary and two sixes in the penultimate over bowled by Yadav to push Pakistan past the 100-run mark.
Later, the Indians cruised to a win with 5.5 overs to spare as openers Shafali Verma (40) and Smriti Mandhana (45) added 85 runs for the opening wicket.
Verma played the role of aggressor early on as Mandhana took her time to settle in. However once she got her eye in, the latter exploded hitting leg spinner Tauba Hassan for seven boundaries in a span of two overs.
Mandhana fell in the ninth over to Syeda Aroob Shah before Dayalan Hemalatha joined Verma in the middle.
Though Verma and Hemalatha fell in quick succession, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues knocked off the remaining seven runs without any further hiccups.
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