Pakistan began their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup campaign with a confident eight-wicket victory over former champions West Indies in Canberra on Wednesday to throw their group wide open.
Earlier, England beat Thailand by 98 runs and West Indies, South Africa, England and Pakistan are all tied in group B on two points each.
Sharp new ball bowling from Diana Baig exposed a struggling Windies top order but a partnership Stafanie Taylor and Shemaine Campbelle took them to 124/7.
The Windies top order faltered and found themselves three wickets down within seven overs for the second game in succession.
Pakistan openers Javeria Khan and Muneeba Ali controlled the chase expertly and put on 57, with captain Bismah Maroof’s unbeaten 38 steering her side to a seventh win at the Women’s T20 World Cup.
Hayley Matthews, star of the 2016 Women’s T20 World Cup final, fell for a golden duck as Baig got the game’s first ball to move in the air and rap the opener on the pads.
Lee-Ann Kirby’s stand-and-deliver approach yielded three quick boundaries as she lofted Aiman Anwar for four over mid-off and then cover in the fourth over. But she perished on the first ball of the fifth, Diana enticing another heave from the opener who skewed a catch to Muneeba Ali running back at point, departing for 16.
Deandrea Dottin’s troubled stay at the crease ended when she tried to drag Nida Dar from outside off-stump over long-on and could only pick out Iram Javed, departing for one from 10 balls.
Experienced duo Taylor and Campbelle steadied the ship, the captain improving on the disappointing strike rotation last time out before Campbelle cleared the midwicket rope of Dar.
Campbelle – who brought up a century of T20I appearances against Thailand – missed an attempted reverse sweep off Anam Amin and while given not out on-field, Bismah’s referral adjudged her lbw for 43.
All-rounder Chinelle Henry couldn’t settle, dropped on her fourth ball as Anam grassed a return catch, but she departed when trapped lbw for four playing Aiman Anwar across the line.
Taylor put her foot down in the 18th over, carting Aiman’s low full toss over midwicket and just clearing the long-on boundary off Dar before picking out Baig on the cow corner fence for 43 from 47 balls.
Pakistan’s opening pair were cautious at the start of their reply, with thick edges wide of the slip cordon yielding three boundaries inside the first four overs as they reached 28.
Henry’s medium pace caused few problems as Javeria Khan cut and then pulled her to the rope and Muneeba Ali got in on the act with a firm drive as the over went for 14 runs.
Taylor turned to spin after the Powerplay but Javeria Khan was well set, picking boundaries off Matthews and then twice from Afy Fletcher.
It took the Windies skipper herself to remove Javeria Khan, who misjudged the length of a straight one and departed lbw for a well-made 35.
Muneeba Ali, whose opening partnership of 58 with Javeria Khan was Pakistan’s highest first-wicket stand at the tournament, failed to pick Fletcher’s googly on 25 and could only chip to Anisa Mohammed at mid-wicket.
Maroof took 24 balls to find her first boundary but continued to use her sweep well to spin and scored heavily behind square, Nida Dar offering composed support with mistakes from Taylor and Nation symptomatic of a disappointing Windies fielding display.
Pakistan were untroubled in the closing stages, Maroof hitting the winning boundary as her partnership of 50 with Maroof paved the way for a memorable Pakistan win.
Scores in brief
West Indies 124/7, 20 overs (Shemaine Campbelle 43, Stafanie Taylor 43; Diana Baig 2/19) lost to
Pakistan 127/2, 18.2 overs (Bismah Maroof 38 not out, Javeria Khan 35; Stafanie Taylor 1/20) by eight wickets.
With Inputs from ICC
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