3 takeaways from India's win over Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2023

India started their campaign at the women's T20 World Cup with a confident win against Pakistan. Jemimah Rodrigues was the star with an unbeaten half-century and Richa Ghosh provided a late flurry of boundaries as India executed a rather tricky chase with precision.

Jemimah and Richa added an unbroken 58-run stand and this partnership had the perfect mix of aggressive strokes and controlled strokeplay as India completed their highest successful chase in a T20 World Cup match.

Pakistan had their moments in this game – they were very good with the bat towards the backend of the innings and their bowlers kept things tight for the first 15 overs. However, fielding lapses and a few loose overs cost them the match.

Here, we take a look at the three takeaways from India vs Pakistan match at the T20 Women’s World Cup:

#3 Sub-par fielding

India was sloppy in the field

Fielding from India and Pakistan was well below par and something that could cost both sides heavily as the tournament progresses. When the pressure was amped, there were glaring mistakes from both sides. This is one area where they need to sort out their woes.

For India, Radha Yadav dropped a simple catch in the 19th over and Harleen Deol palmed a high ball over the long-off boundary in the final over. Richa Ghosh too stuffed a relatively easy stumping. As the tournament progresses, India need to focus on this aspect.

Even Pakistan were sloppy in the final few overs. They allowed boundaries as fielders were unable to haul the ball in and India ran away with the momentum in the end.

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#2 India’s nervy top order

Yastika struggled to find her timing

Smriti Mandhana was ruled out for this match and Yastika Bhatia strode out to open. However, she struggled to find any rhythm and was eventually sent back for a laborious 20-ball 17. Shafali Verma too was not finding the middle of her bat and scored largely due to edges and sloppy Pakistan fielding.

When she finally tried to tee off, she was caught brilliantly at long-off by Amin. India were then huffing and puffing at 67 for 2 after the 10th over. The chase became tricky as they needed another 83 off the last 10 overs.

The Indian batters will need to revisit how they approach the powerplay overs, especially when the pace is taken off the ball.

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#1 Jemimah-Richa show astute aggression

Jemimah-Richa seal the deal

The asking rate was climbing steeply and captain Harmanpreet Kaur held the key. She tried to ease some of the pressure by smacking two boundaries in quick succession. However, she too fell to a slog sweep and India were in a spot of bother. Sandhu applied the brakes and ended with figures of 4-0-15-2.

However, this was when Richa Ghosh joined hands with Jemimah as India needed 55 off 36. They sussed the conditions, and tried to take the game deep. This was when cracks started to appear in Pakistan’s ranks. Richa took down Aiman Anwer in the 18th over and creamed three boundaries in the over. India now needed 14 from the final 12 balls.

It was now Jemimah’s turn to take charge as she slammed three boundaries in the penultimate over to notch up a superb fifty and take India over the line.