After hammering Pakistan by seven wickets in their opening fixture of the ongoing Women's Asia Cup, India are geared up to face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their second encounter on Sunday (July 21).
The Women in Blue came into the tournament as hot favourites and made a bold statement after taming their arch-rivals to justify their billing.
India were absolutely clinical in terms of their effort. The bowling department looked settled under the supervision of Deepti Sharma who produced a Player of the Match (POTM) performance with figures of 3/20.
In batting, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana looked menacing as they made the Pakistan bowlers look way below their standards. Dayalan Hemalatha must be mighty disappointed with her outing as he had the opportunity to remain unbeaten in the middle but fell for 14 off 11 balls.
The injury to Shreyanka Patil will force Harmanpreet Kaur and Amol Muzumdar to tweak the balance of the side but with a powerful bench strength at their disposal, India are expected to sort the issue.
Uncapped Slow left-arm orthodox bowler Tanuja Kanwer has been announced as the replacement for Patil and her presence will give the India skipper plenty to choose from.
On the other hand, UAE had a nightmare of a game when they took on Nepal in the curtain raiser. Having entered the tournament on the back of a successful Women's Premier Cup 2024 campaign, UAE were expected to beat Nepal but it went the other way around as the UAE players looked rusty.
Nepal spinners were precise in terms of their line and length and never allowed the UAE players to break the shackles. Defending 116 was never going to be easy for UAE and that's how it panned out as Nepal raced to the target with 23 balls and six wickets to spare.
India women vs UAE women head-to-head record in T20Is
India and UAE have played only once against each other in T20Is. It was also an Asia Cup affair and it saw India make mincemeat of UAE by 104 runs in Sylhet in October 2022.
