DUBAI: A dazzling show from spinners helped India outclass Pakistan by seven wickets in what turned out to be a completely one-sided group match of the ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
The massive loss, which was Pakistan women team’s first in the eight-team continental event, was their 15th overall defeat against India in T20 International outings. Pakistan have won three against them so far with the last coming four years ago.
Pakistan, who are currently second on the points table with two points from two outings, will face Hong Kong in their third Group ‘A’ fixture on Monday at the same venue.
After electing to bat first, Pakistan’s opening pair of Muneeba Ali and Shawaal Zulfiqar provided a run-a-ball start of 27, but once Muneeba (13 off 15 balls) was cleaned up by off-spinner Shafali Verma in the fifth over, Pakistan started losing wickets at regular intervals.
After reaching a dismal 29-3 inpowerplay, they never recovered amid a magnificent display by Indian spinners.
Other than the openers, no Pakistan batter could reach double figures.
In a jaw-dropping collapse, Pakistan batting wilted from 27-0 to 35-6 in 29 balls as captain Fatima Sana, Gull Feroza, Ayesha Zafar and Sadaf Shamas failed badly with the willow.
Pakistan were eventually bowled out for a pathetic total of 55 -their lowest total in T20 Internationals -in 18.1 overs.
Shawaal scored a run-a-ball 14 laced with three fours.
The extent of an extremely lethargic innings can be gauged from the fact that the Fatima-led team reached the 50-mark in the 16th over. Three players could not even open their account.
In a highly impressive performance, Indian slow left-arm orthodox spinner Shree Charani picked up three important wick-ets of Shawaal, Gull (zero) and Ayesha (two) -for just seven runs in her four excellent overs that completely prevented Pakistan from scoring. Charani richly deserved the player-ofthe-match award.
Leg-spinner Prema Rawat was equally accurate as she dismissed Sadaf (three), Umm-eHani (six) and Nashra Sandhu (zero)for just nine runs infour overs. Off-spinner Deepti Sharma gave away just five runs in 3.1 overs and sent Fatima (zero) and Tuba Hassan (nine) back to the pavilion. Verma gave only 10 runs in her three overs.
India achieved the scanty target in 8.4 overs for the loss of three wickets. All three wickets were taken by Fatima, who conceded 17 runs in three overs.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur (18 not out) and Deepti (12 not out) steered India home.
Earlier, Fatima and Kaur did not shake hands at the toss, a practice that has prevailed since last year’s military conflict between the two neighbouring countries.-Agencies