Australia dominate Pakistan, win by nine wickets

DUBAI: Australia all but confirmed their place in the final four of the Women’s T20 World Cup after beating Pakistan on Friday in what was the most dominant performance of the tournament so far.

A deflated Pakistani side, without their captain Fatima Sana and bowler Diana Baig, weren’t able to mount much of an offense, scoring the lowest total of the tournament so far at 82 runs.

Only four Pakistani players made ten runs or more, with Aliya Raiz scoring the highest total of the game at 26 runs off 32 balls.

Sophie Molineux was the first to strike from Australia’s bowlers in just the fourth over, dismissing skipper Muneeba Ali after she attempted to swipe it over cow corner, instead sending the ball to Litchfield’s hands.

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Both Annabel Sutherland and Georgia Wareham would bag two wickets each.

Wareham’s two wickets came in the eight and tenth over, dismissing Omaima Sohail and Nida Dar. Sohail would fall after Ashleigh Gardner took an easy catch. Nida Dar would leave the field after being stumped by wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy.

Sutherland would dismiss Sidra Amin after her Yorker smashed into the Pakistani opener’s front pad, with the umpire quickly putting up his finger. Sutherland would get her second wicket by dismissing Riaz, after the Pakistani allrounder tried to go deep, but came up short with Wareham taking the catch.

That would be the final wicket of Pakistan’s innings, however it was Gardner that truly demolished the women in green, winning player of the match by taking four wickets, while only allowing 21 runs.

First, Iram Javed would fall after the batter attempted to bring some life into the Pakistan’s offense by smashing the ball for six. Her stroke got enough height but no distance, allowing Wareham to comfortably settle under the ball and take the catch. Then Tuba Hassan would fall, with a shorter delivery from Gardner, baiting the batter to come down the pitch. Hassan would miss the ball completely and Healy would whip off the bails.

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Gardner would get two back to back wickets in the nineteenth over. Syeda Aroob Shah didn’t put enough power on her stroke, lightly sending the ball to Beth Mooney at mid-wicket. Nashra Sandhu would be dismissed right after, with Gardner’s delivery spinning back into Sandhu, hitting her on the pads. Australia appealed for a quite a while before the umpire’s finger finally went up.

Australia would comfortably make the required 83 runs, only losing one wicket in the process, and have 54 balls to spare. It is extremely unlikely for Pakistan to make the semifinals after the loss, with the second worst net run rate of their group and only one game remaining, which will be against New Zealand on October 14.