BIRMINGHAM:
Pakistan Women’s team suffered their second consecutive defeat in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup where South Africa beat Pakistan by 2 wickets after a tough and exciting match.
In the match played in Birmingham, Pakistan scored 126 runs and lost 9 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
Pakistan’s innings got off to a disappointing start with most of the batsmen, including the middle order, unable to withstand the South African bowling for long.
The most outstanding performance in the batting was captain Fatima Sana who scored 55 runs off 38 balls which included 6 fours and 2 beautiful sixes.
Apart from him, Tobiah Hassan supported the score with 23 runs, but overall, Pakistan’s batting line-up was under pressure from time to time and 4 players were run out while trying to get the wrong runs.
In pursuit of the target, South Africa initially adopted a cautious approach, but the Pakistani bowlers staged a brilliant comeback and made the match interesting.
At one point, the South African team had lost 6 wickets for 107 runs and the match seemed to be going in favor of Pakistan.
However, in the next overs, Dirksen scored 52 runs and De Klerk played a responsible 37 runs to lead the team to victory.
South Africa scored 127 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the 17th over.
In Pakistan’s bowling, Fatima Sana took 3 wickets, Sadia Iqbal and Tuba Hasan also dismissed 2 players.
This is Pakistan’s second consecutive defeat in this tournament, before the national team lost to arch-rivals India in their first match.
Pakistan Women’s team will play their next important match against Bangladesh on Saturday where a win will be crucial for the team to keep their comeback hopes alive.
