COLOMBO: After clinching the quadrangular Twenty20 series, Pakistan made a winning start to the women’s four-nation one-day series when they beat Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s women’s cricket team have had an impressive tour of Sri Lanka, as they beat the hosts in a one-off ODI, then went on to lift the quadrangular Twenty20 trophy, and have now won the first match of the ODI tournament.
The opening match, which was played at Colombo’s P Sara Oval ground, was a low-scoring encounter as Sri Lanka were bundled out for 68 runs in 24.2 overs after being sent in to bat by Pakistan captain Sana Mir.
Pakistan, however, made the task difficult for themselves as they scraped to a last-ball win with two wickets in hand.
In-form opener Javeria Khan was dismissed in the third over for a duck and one-down batter Nahida Khan followed her back to the pavilion after scoring four runs, giving Sri Lanka a chance of reclaiming some pride.
Javeria’s opening partner Nida Dar, however, built a slow but steady fourth-wicket partnership with Bisma Mahroof and took Pakistan to 32-2.
When Nida fell to Eshani Kaushalya, she was replaced by Sana Mir but the captain couldn’t last long and Pakistan were reduced to 38-4.
Marina Iqbal then kept Bisma company until the latter was dismissed in the 20th over.
From there on, Pakistan’s chase was wobbly all the way to the end until the winning run was scored on the final ball of the innings.
Qanita Jalil, who has had a prolific tour so far, was among the wickets again as she removed Sri Lanka’s middle-order batters Suwini de Alwes and Lasanthi Madushani after the openers fell to Bisma Mahroof and Masooma Junaid.
Captain Mir was also impressive, with two wickets from her four overs as the hosts’ batswomen struggled to get runs on the board. Eshani Kaushalya (23) and Avanthika Mendis (13) were the only ones to get into double figures as all Pakistani bowlers contributed to the wickets tally.
In the day’s other rain-shortened match, Ireland beat the Netherlands in another close finish. Ireland made 113 runs in their 28 overs but the Dutch women couldn’t reach the low target and were bowled out for 112 runs.
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