In what turned out to be another miserable outing for Pakistan, New Zealand defeated them handsomely by 8 wickets in a league stage match of the Women’s World Cup. After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Sana Mir’s side lost all of their wickets after adding 144 runs.
New Zealand, on the other hand, made no fuss of the target and completed the chase in 15 overs, with Sophie Devine being the highest scorer. Hannah Rowe, making her World Cup debut, was named the player of the match as she picked three wickets in her nine overs and destroyed Pakistan line-up.
Here we discuss five defining moments of the match.
#1 Pakistan fail to capitalise on a decent start again
On what looked like a good batting wicket, Women in Green started well with the help of openers Ayesha Zafar and Nahida Khan. After weathering the storm for a couple of overs, both the batswomen launched themselves on the NZ bowling attack.
They quickly scored 30 runs by the end of seventh over and looked set to provide a base strong enough for the Pakistan middle order to propel the score from. However, Zafar, after adding 17 runs to the board, fell to Leigh Kasperek in the eighth over.
The first wicket partnership of 35 runs was the joint highest in the Pakistani innings.
#2 Rowe impresses on her WC debut
Having lost two quick wickets, Pakistan were looking to come out of the tricky situation and slowly build their innings. However, Rowe had other ideas.
The 20-year-old right-arm medium fast bowler, in just her second over, caught two batswomen plumb in front of the wickets on consecutive deliveries of the 13th over. After Javeria Khan smashed her for a four on the first ball of the over, Rowe bowled two identical deliveries and sent back both Khan and new batswomen Nain Abidi to the pavilion.
Sana Mir, playing her 100th ODI, managed to deny the 20-year-old a hat-trick. The NZ bowler then went on to bag another wicket, that of Kainat Imtiaz in the 31st over and returned with figures of 9-2-22-3.
#3 Sana Mir – The lone warrior
The 31-year-old all-rounder, also the skipper of the team, has quite often been the only one from this Pakistani team who has displayed at least a semblance of resolution. Coming in to bat with four of her top order players back in the hut, Mir gathered herself and fought remaining of the battle alone.
Before being the ninth wicket to fall, the skipper scored a well-crafted half-century and made sure her team crosses the 100-run mark at least.
She added 28 runs for the sixth wicket with Iram Javed and then 35 runs with Sidra Nawaz for the eighth wicket.
#4 Sophie Devine bats like a woman possessed
With just 145 runs to chase down, Amy Satterthwaite and Rachel Priest opened the batting for New Zealand. Though the latter fell with just 12 runs on the board, Devine didn’t let the loss affect her team much.
The right-handed batswomen let herself loose from the get go and didn’t allow Pakistan bowlers a moment of peace. Striking at over 220, Devine smashed nine sixes and seven fours en route 41-ball-93.
When the 27-year-old got out, her team were just 2 runs from the target.
#5 New Zealand in a four-way race with India, England and South Africa to finish second/third
With Australia more or less assured of a finish at the top of the table given their sumptuous form, the four aforementioned teams are locked in a four-way battle to finish second, or worst case scenario, third.
The reason being, the team who finishes fourth will, most probably, have to face the rampant Aussies in the semifinal. The other semifinal will be played between the teams who finish second and third.
With India losing to South Africa today and NZ winning this match, the race has gotten tighter. India currently sit at the second place with eight points in five matches, whereas New Zealand and South Africa occupy third and fourth respectively, with seven points in five matches.’
England are currently sixth with six points, having played only four matches, and will be locking horns with Australia on Sunday in a high-octane clash. The other three teams, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Pakistan are out of the competition.
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