WT20: Pakistan Women's squad in contention for final four

By Faizan Lakhani

The Pakistan women's cricket team has put itself in contention to qualify for the final-four of the ICC Women’s World T20, after a 9-wicket win against Bangladesh in Delhi on Thursday.

A record second wicket 99 run partnership between Sidra Ameen and Bismah Maroof helped Pakistan reach the target with 21 balls remaining. 

This was Pakistan’s 13th win in T20Is against Bangladesh and 2nd in the last three games of the ongoing ICC Women’s World T20 in India. 

Player of the match, 23 years old Sidra Ameen was Pakistan's top scorer unbeaten at 53, Bismah Maroof scored 43 to complete 1200 runs of her WT20I career. 

Partnership Record

Their 99 run partnership, is not only Pakistan’s best partnership for 2nd wicket, but also the best second wicket partnership by any Asian team in the shortest format of Women’s Cricket.

Earlier, Fargana Hoque scored 36 to help Bangladesh post a decent total of 113 in twenty overs, leaving a target of 114 runs for Pakistan to win. 

But, Bangladeshi bowlers were not good enough to resist the attack launched by Sidra and Bismah.

"When I stared the innings, I was a little confused, but once I started playing my shots, I got confident, said Sidra after being declared player of the match.

“I played ball by ball, then thanks to Bismah, she told me how to play, play according to the field, pick the gaps,” she added.

Having defeated Bangladesh and India, Pakistan is now in the race to qualify for a lost in the semi-finals, but for that they need to beat England - and also hope for India’s win against West Indies on Sunday.

"Extremely proud of the way we played the last few matches, and we have been following England's team as well and we think we have a very good chance of beating them and playing the semis,” said Sana Mir, captain of Pakistan women Cricket team after Pakistan’s win against Bangladesh.

 

Player of the Match Sidra Ameen took this pic with her Player of the Match trophy after scoring 53 for #PAK #WT20 pic.twitter.com/ziWhjkXcNf

— ICC (@ICC) March 24, 2016