Asia Cup 2024: India defeated Pakistan in their first match of the Women's Asia Cup 2024 on Friday, July 19 with a seven-wicket win over their arch-rivals. Chasing a paltry target of 109, the openers - Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma - provided a blistering start before captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues closed the deal for the Women in Blue.
Indian captain Harmanpreet has lauded the team's effort after the win, stating that fearless cricket is the way to play for the team. She began her post-match presentation speech by highlighting the bowlers' effort before coming to the batters praising their intent-filled approach.
"Our bowlers and openers made it. First game is always a pressure game but we managed it well. Our entire unit played really well. When we are bowling we talk about early breakthroughs and in batting, we look to start well so credit to Smriti and Shafali. Playing fearless cricket, how we played today and we are really happy with the way we played. My knee is fine," Harmanpreet said after the win.
India were asked to chase 109 after the bowlers bowled the Women in Green out in 19.2 overs. Mandhana and Shafali provided a strong start and raced India to 57 in the powerplay. Mandhana took five fours off Tuba Hassan in the 8th over as the defending champions looked for an early win.
But then Pakistan bowlers tried to bring some joy as Syeda Aroob Shah removed both the Indian openers short of their fifties. Nashra Sandhu removed Dayalan Hemalatha before Harmanpreet and Jemimah took India home with 35 balls to go.
The platform for the win was laid by the Indian bowlers. All-rounder Deepti Sharma was the pick of the bunch with three wickets while returning Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar and Shreyanka Patil scalped two each. Sidra Ameen, Tuba Hassan and Fatima Sana were the only ones to get over 20. Ameen was the top-scorer with 25 runs but she took 35 balls to score those runs.
India will next play against UAE on July 21 before setting-up a meet with Nepal on July 23.
