Mithali Raj, the Indian women cricket team captain led India to victory today by scoring a magnificent half-century defeating Pakistan. The team with their collective effort proved their might by winning over Pakistan by seven wickets continuing their streak in the ICC Women’s World T20 tournament in Guyana on Sunday. The Indian women bowlers also left no stone unturned as they limited the Pakis on 134/7 and Mithali put on a glorious show by averaging 7 boundaries.

India Begins With a Headstart of 10 Runs

The India team was overlooking an unusual scoreline of 10/0 at which they began their chase. Given ICC’s rules, Pakis had to suffer a penalty of 10 runs when their batters were running on the pitch. As per the conditions of the game, the situation called for a first and final warning from the umpires before the team was penalised for the next time.

In the neighbouring team, two players including Nida Dar and Bismah Maroof, who both made half-centuries in the game were warned by the umpires following the completion of 13th over for breaking the rule of running in the danger area. As soon the 18th over began, Pakistani team was hit by the first warning from the umpire, after which the team was penalised on the last ball of the innings.

Mithali stood on the pitch in partnership with Smriti Mandhana and took full advantage of the situation, finally dominating the game. Although the wickets kept thinning out in the middle, Mithali stood her ground and led the team to the victory with the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur delivering a quick-fire knock towards the end.

Mithali Expresses Her Love for Batting

When asked after the match, Mithali expressed her joy and spoke, “I enjoy going batting and no matter where I bat, I will be happy to bat. Chasing puts a little pressure, but no matter what the challenge is, I always enjoy. I see there is no doubt that we will get to the Semis, but as we go forward, we’ll be playing strong teams, so we will have to bring our A game every match.”

It was owing to Bismah Maroof and Nida Dar that the Pakistani team was able to take their counter to 133/7. However, the blues of the recent 52-run defeat from the Australian team was surely visible on the faces of the Pakistani players. The Indian bowlers definitely made things harder for the Pakis.

Somewhere, the quick dismissal of Ayesha Zafar on a bowl delivered by Arundhati Reddy and caught by Veda Krishnamurthy pushed the Pakistani team to run out of batters who could put up a strong front. Omaima Sohail and Javeria Khan basically gave away their wickets for no reason with two run outs, thus putting Pakistan in the tough spot of 30/3 in the seventh over.

Nida Steals the Spotlight for Pakistan

Bismah and Nida were the only players who put up a strong front and dragged the cart to the 94 run-marker. While Bismah touched 53 runs off of 49 balls, Nida was dismissed after she credited 52 off 35 balls including five boundaries out of which two were sixes.

Nida seemed to be having a lucky day on the pitch as the spectators saw Veda drop an easy catch on Radha Yadav’s ball on the long off. In the middle, Pakistanis found a golden streak as the Indians fell a little short on the fielding.

Dayalan Hemalatha cracked two wickets in the 19th over after the two batters concluded their half centuries. Veda dismissed Maroof later in the game after which we saw Nida dismissal to pavilion as the ball slipped past the batter after a shorthand cut and on to Harmanpreet Kaur’s hands. Apart from Javeria Khan, who managed to reach double figures, the rest of the batters couldn’t stand against the Indian team strongly.