Women in Blue are Asian champs

BANGKOK, December 4

India beat arch-rivals Pakistan by 17 runs in the final of the women’s T20 Asia Cup here today. The defending champions, thanks to an unbeaten 65-ball 73 by Mithali Raj, posted a total of 121 runs, and then restricted Pakistan to 104/6 to retain the trophy.

Electing to bat, Mithali held the innings together with her fine knock. She showed her intent in the very first over with a boundary through the covers. She continued in the same vein and brought up her 10th half-century in the shortest format of the game.

While Mithali looked in control and held up one end, the batters at the other end found the going tough. India lost their first wicket at 24 — Smriti Mandhana was caught off a mis-hit. Mithali, however, continued to punish the Pakistan bowlers in the company of S Meghana. At 68, India lost their second wicket when Meghana (9) failed to make her ground. In the following over, Veda Krishnamurthy was trapped lbw by Sadia Yousuf. The dismissal brought Harmanpreet Kaur to the middle but she, too, couldn’t last long and India were soon 89/4. Next in was veteran Jhulan Goswami, and her 15-ball 17 helped India cross the 100-run mark.

She fell attempting a second successive six off off-spinner Sana Mir. While her first shot soared over the mid-wicket boundary, she was caught near the boundary rope off a similar shot on the penultimate ball of the innings.

In reply, Pakistan got off to a sparkling start, plundering 10 runs off the first over bowled by Ekta Bisht. Pakistan openers Ayesha Zafar and Javeria Khan looked in good touch and put up 24 runs in four overs.

In the fifth over, Jhulan gave India their first breakthrough when she rattled the stumps of Ayesha. It was her 50th wicket in the T20 format. In the next over, Asmavia Iqbal dragged a Shikha Pandey delivery on to her stumps to leave Pakistan at 28/2. Javeria, however, continued to defy the Indian bowlers to keep her team in the game. In the 10th over, with the score 56/2, she holed out to Harmanpreet off Ekta. In the 14th over, Anuja Patil dealt a huge blow to Pakistan when she had skipper Bismah Maroof caught and bowled.

This wicket turned out to be the turning point in the match as Pakistan failed to keep pace with the asking rate after the fall of their skipper. With 40 runs required off 24 balls, Pakistan’s lower-order had a mountain to climb. Bowling the 17th over, Harmanpreet conceded only one run to make it even more difficult for Pakistan. Nida Rashid and Sana picked singles and twos in the last three overs, but couldn’t get the required boundaries. Eventually, they managed only 104/6.

India hit a special six!  

The victory was all the more memorable for India as the International Cricket Council (ICC) had recently docked them six points for not playing Pakistan in a bilateral series between August 1 and October 31. With this win, India also avenged the loss to Pakistan in the World T20 in March. Besides, the win also helped India maintain their enviable record in the continental event, having won all the six editions so far. The first four editions, starting from 2004, were played in the 50-over format, while the last two have been played in the 20-over format. In the last edition, held in Guangzhou in 2012, India had lifted the trophy beating Pakistan in the final.

Scoreboard

India 

M Raj not out 73

S Mandhana c Iqbal b Amin 6

S Meghana run out 9

V Krishnamurthy lbw b Yousuf 2

H Kaur b Amin 5

J Goswami c Javeria b Mir 17

A Patil not out 0 

Extras: (w 8, nb 1) 9

Total (For 5 wickets; 20 overs) 121

FOW:- 1-24, 2-68, 3-73, 4-89, 5-120

Bowling

A Iqbal 3-0-23-0

S Mir 4-0-23-1

A Amin 4-0 -24-2

S Yousuf 4-0-15-1

N Dar 4-0-29-0

I Javed 1-0-7-0

Pakistan 

A Zafar b Goswami 15

J Khan c Kaur b Bisht 22

A Iqbal b Pandey 1

B Maroof c & b Patil 25

N Abidi st Verma b Bose 9

I Javed st Verma b Bisht 3

N Dar not out 12 

S Mir not out 12

Extras: (B 1, LB 1, W 3) 5

Total (For 6 wickets; 20 overs) 104 

FOW:- 1-24, 2-28, 3-56, 4-75, 5-79, 6-81

Bowling

E Bisht 4-0 -22-2

A Patil 4-0-18-1

J Goswami 4-0-19-1

S Pandey 2-0-17 -1

P Bose 4-0-18-1

H Kaur 2-0-8-0

Player of the Match: 

Mithali Raj

Player of the Series: Mithali Raj. She finished as the highest run-getter with 220 runs.