Asia Cup 2024, NEP-W vs PAK-W Match 6, Group A Match Report, July 21, 2024

Pakistan 110 for 1 (Feroza 57, Muneeba 46*) batting Nepal 108 for 6 (Joshi 31*, Magar 26, Iqbal 2-19) by nine wickets

Pakistan kept their Women’s Asia Cup campaign alive with a massive nine-wicket victory over Nepal in Dambulla on Sunday evening.

The win raised Pakistan’s run rate to 0.409 and lifted them to second place in the points table.

A good start for Nepal

Samjhana Khadka, fresh off a match-winning half-century against the UAE, hit Fatima Sana over cover for four on the fourth ball of the innings. But he was late on the next ball, and ended up giving Nashra Sandhu an easy bowler at short-on.

Iqbal’s double hit puts the brakes on

Nepal’s next boundary came in the ninth over when Rubina Chhetry edged Sandhu down for four. But Chhetry’s exit in the next over kept Nepal out. Soon after, Magar also ran out of time when he went to run second.

Joshi and Mahato helped Nepal finish strongly

Feroza, Muneeba ace the chase

If Nepal thinks it has posted a good amount, Feroza and Muneeba have proved it to be anything but. Feroza hit the first ball chasing four covers. He hit three more boundaries in the next two overs and went on to 20 off 16 balls. Muneeba had faced only two balls at that time and was yet to open his account.

Muneeba had a hard time finding time at first but it didn’t take long for her to succeed. In the sixth over, he hit Magar for three fours as Pakistan ended the powerplay with 52 for no loss.

Even when the field restrictions were relaxed, there was no respite for the Nepali bowlers, who not only deviated from their lines and lengths but also lacked support from their bowlers. Not a single moment of the chase was out of bounds.

Feroza single-handedly hit eight fours in the first eight overs, bringing up his maiden T20I fifty in 30 balls. When he fell, Pakistan needed just four runs, which Muneeba managed with yet another boundary.