Providence, Guyana: Seasoned batter Mithali Raj cracked a half-century to guide India to a seven-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Women’s World T20.
Raj held fort from one end to make short work of India’s run chase with a 47-ball 56 which she made with the help of seven fours in the Group B match which was marred by unprecedented docking of 10 penalty runs on Pakistan.
Even before a ball being faced, 10 runs were on India’s scoreboard after Pakistan were docked five-run penalty twice during their innings on account of their batswomen running on the danger area of the pitch during their innings.
India had little difficulty in chasing down the modest target of 134 with six balls to spare, reaching 137-3 in 19 overs.
Previous game centurion and captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy remained not out on 14 and 8 respectively.
Courtesy the victory, India (with four points) now have one foot in the semi-finals from the five-team Group B.
Two teams each from the two groups qualify for the semi-finals.
Brief scores:
India 137/3 in 19 overs (Mithali Raj 56; Diana Baig 1/19) beat Pakistan: 133/7 in 20 overs (Bismah Maroof 53, Nida Dar 52; Poonam Yadav 2/22, Dayalan Hemalatha 2/34) by seven wickets.
