Team India, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, defeats Pakistan by seven wickets to begin their Women's T20 World Cup campaign. On Sunday, February 12, the marquee match between the two teams was played at the Newlands in Cape Town, and it was the subject of intense anticipation.
After choosing to bat first and giving the Green Brigade some early shocks, Bismah Maroof played a captain's knock that set the tone. Muneeba Ali and Javeria Khan, the team's openers, were quickly dismissed at scores of 12 and 8 runs, respectively, failing to get the team off to a strong start. This dealt the team a significant setback early on in the match.
Despite this, captain Bismah maintained his composure and played a pretty careful innings as the wickets continued to fall frequently. After struggling early in the high-stakes match, the team recovered thanks to a superb 81-run partnership with Ayesha Naseem, who batted lower in the order.
Pakistan posted a competitive total of 149 runs in their allotted 20 overs. It's interesting to note that this was also the Women in Green's highest score ever versus the Indian team in the main event's history.
India received a respectable head start in their response to the total thanks to its openers, Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia. However, just as the pair was clicking, Yastika's crucial wicket was taken by Sadia Iqbal.
While everything was going on, Nashra Sandhu sent Shafali packing with an individual score of 33 off 25 balls. Despite playing her natural game, Shafali was unable to turn it into a significant score. Jemimah Rodrigues entered the field, and she formed a crucial 58-run partnership with Richa Ghosh to assist the team gain the upper hand in the match.
Jemimah then shifted gears and hit an undefeated 53 off 38 runs to give India their first victory in the major competition. In the end, she received the Player of the Match award.