India women beat Pakistan women in their first encounter of the ICC Women’s T20 world cup 2023 at Newlands by 7 wickets to start their campaign with a win. India women won the match with 6 balls to spare. It was India women’s highest run-chase in the T20 world cup. Their previous highest run-chase in the T20 world cup came in 2018 in Guyana against the same opposition when they chased down 137. An outstanding half-century from Jemimah Rodrigues and a blistering cameo from Richa Ghosh helped India secure their first points in the Women’s T20 world cup 2023 campaign.
Pakistan skipper Bismah Maroof won the toss on a used surface and opted to bat first. Pakistan lost Javeria Khan with the scoreboard reading 10 in the 2nd over. Bismah walked in at number 3 and stitched a healthy partnership with Muneeba Ali. Pakistan lost two quick wickets with Muneeba and Nida Dar sent back within the space of 4 deliveries.
After Sidra Ameen’s dismissal, Ayesha Naseem joined hands with her skipper and stitched an 80+ run partnership to push her team to 149. For India, Radha Yadav picked up 2 wickets while Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar picked up a wicket each.
India started well in their chase of 150 with the opening duo of Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia putting up a quickfire 38. The scoring rate slowed down a bit after Bhatia’s dismissal which led to the dismissals of Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur. However, in came Richa Ghosh and she partnered with Jemimah Rodrigues to put India across the line. Jemimah Rodrigues was declared the player of the match for her astonishing performance.
India women will face the West Indies women while Pakistan will play Ireland women on February 15 at the same venue.