National women's team experiences bad start as Blues chase down 109-run target in just 14.1 overs         Renuka Singh belts out an appeal on her way to figures of 4-0-14-2 during India's match against Pakistan. — ACC

India women's cricket team inflicted a humiliating 7-run defeat on Pakistan in their first match at the Women's Asia Cup 2024, played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Sri Lanka on Friday.

Without much trouble after dominance with the ball, the Indian team continued to remain at the top of their game with the bat as they chased down the 109-run target in just 14.1 overs.

Shafali Verma (40 off 29) and Smriti Mandhana (45 off 31) put India on top as the two combined for 85 runs before the latter was dismissed by Aroob Shah.

After losing the openers and Dayalan Hemalatha (14 off 11), skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues came to bat and completed the job for the team.

Opting to bat first, Pakistan didn’t have a great start as they had lost both of their openers — Gull Feroza and Muneeba Ali — after posting just five and 11 runs respectively, leaving their team at 26-2 in 3.5 overs.

Sidra Amin played valiantly but she got no support from the other hand as skipper Nida Dar (8 off 11) and Aliya Riaz (6 off 11) failed to contribute any valuable runs.

After scoring 22 runs on 35 balls, Amin lost her wicket after which Tuba Hassan took charge of Pakistan’s innings and played a quick 22-run knock on 19 balls with three boundaries.

Indian bowlers’ dominance made it nearly impossible for the Pakistani batters to score big runs and it looked that the Blues may restrict their opponents within the 100-run mark but Fatima Sana’s late 16-ball 22-run knock helped the Green Shirts score 108 runs before being all out in 19.2 overs.

For India, Deepti Sharma picked three while Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar and Shreyanka Patil bagged two wickets each.

Playing XIs

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Renuka Thakur Singh

Pakistan: Sidra Ameen, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali (wk), Nida Dar (c), Aliya Riaz, Iram Javed, Fatima Sana, Tuba Hassan, Sadia Iqbal, Nashra Sandhu, Syeda Aroob Shah

Pakistan’s remaining matches in Women’s Asia Cup

July 21, Sunday — Pakistan vs Nepal

July 23, Tuesday — Pakistan vs UAE