A dominant Indian women advanced to the final of Women’s Asia cup T20 tournament 2018 courtesy of a convincing win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their last group stage match with a seven wicket win. This was a do or die situation for India after a shocking defeat to Bangladesh in the early phase of the tournament.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and choose to bat first. Indian bowlers were way too dominant on the day and restricted Pakistan to 72 runs in 20 overs.
Left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht was the most successful India bowler, claiming impressive figures of 3/14 in her four-over spell. Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey and Anuja Patil picked one wicket each. Sana Mir(20* of 38 balls) was the highest scorer for Pakistan.
Pakistan was expected to script a fight back courtesy of their impressive bowling line up as they dismissed Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma on duck to force a panic button on the Indians. But a 65 run stand between Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur took the game away from Pakistan as India chased down the target in 16.1 overs.
Opener Smriti Mandhana top-scored with 38 off 40 balls while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur made 34 of 49 balls. This was India’s fourth win in five matches.
Ekta Bisht was named Player of the Match.
