India crushed Pakistan by 95 runs in a low-scoring encounter to record their third successive victory in the ICC Women’s World Cup today.
After a couple of impressive outings by the batswomen, it was the turn of Bisht (10-2-18-5) and Co. to defend a meagre total of 169, skittling the opposition out for a lowly 74 in 38.1 overs.
India now have six points from three games and are at the top of the table.
It was a sweet revenge for the Indian eves, who were beaten at home when the two teams met in the ICC World T20 in Delhi, last year.
What looked like a sub-par score turned out to be a challenging one for Pakistani batters, who have never successfully chased more than 134 in a 50-over World Cup game.
They were all at sea against Ekta’s arm balls. She removed Ayesha Zafar (1), Sidra Nawaz (0) and Iram Javed (0) in her first four overs to wreak havoc.
All three deliveries were almost identical where the batters played for the turn but it didn’t turn much after pitching. She later came back to get a couple of wickets more.
Pakistan never recovered from that setback. Seamers Jhulan Goswami (1/12 in 5 overs) and young Mansi Joshi (2/9 in 6.1 overs) were also on target. Deepti Sharma (1/21) and Harmanpreet Kaur (1/6) were economical as all the batswomen struggled to get going.
Opener Nahida Khan (23 off 62 balls) and skipper Sana Mir (29) were the only ones to reach double figures for Pakistan.
Indian skipper Mithali Raj praised Ekta for her performance.
“I am proud of Ekta’s performance. Whenever she has been handed the new ball, she has performed. There were some anxious moments when we lost the top-order (while batting). The partnership between Sushma Verma and Jhulan Goswami towards the end was also important. When we got to a total of 169, I knew that if we could bowl well, it could be anybody’s game,” said Mithali.
Man-of-the-Match Ekta said: “The plan was to pile on dot balls, because we were confident of the target we set.”
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