YOUNG spin twins Shree Charani and Prema Rawat strangled Pakistan with deadly spells as India trampled all over their arch-rivals, winning a lopsided Women's Asia Cup T20 contest by seven wickets on Saturday.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who became the first international captain, men or women, to lead the country in 150 T20Is, couldn't have been more pleased to find her spinners skittling out Pakistan for 55 in just 18.1 overs, their lowest-ever total in the shortest format. Fittingly, she finished the game with a regal six down the ground.
India's spinners, 22-year-old left-arm orthodox Charani (3/7 in 4 overs), 24-year-old leg-break bowler Prema (3/9 in 4 overs) and part-time wrist spinner Shafali Verma (1/10 in 3 overs), completely dismantled the Pakistan batting. Deepti Sharma (2/5 in 3.1 overs) completed the formalities.
India completed the chase in 8.4 overs despite losing Shafali Verma (12), Smriti Mandhana (9) and Pratika Rawal (4) cheaply to Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana. Harmanpreet (18 n.o.) and Deepti (12 n.o.) used all their experience to calm the nerves after some initial jitters. With no scoreboard pressure, Pakistan bowlers never had any chance as such to create an upset.
Indian women would have expected a bit of practice before their semi-finals, but such was the plight of Pakistani batters that once again it became a 'No Contest'. In the history of the T20 Asia Cup, India have won seven games to Pakistan's one.
Earlier, opting to bat, Pakistan did start confidently, reaching 27 for no loss in little over four overs with openers Muneeba Ali (13) and Shawaal Zulfiqar (14) facing the seamers with ease, but none of the other batters was able to reach double figures in an embarrassing display of ineptitude.
The two wrist spinners, Shafali and Prema, didn't try to turn and kept attacking the stumps with relentless accuracy. By the time Deepti came in to bowl, Pakistan women had already thrown in the towel. In 18.1 overs, Indian bowlers delivered an astounding 78 dot balls.
Once Harmanpreet Kaur, captaining the country for the 150th time in T20Is, gauged that the pitch was offering turn, she introduced the spinners right away and got due dividends. Suddenly Pakistan lost six wickets for the addition of nine runs to totter at 36 for 6 after the end of 10 overs.
Strangled for runs, Muneeba tried to shuffle towards leg stump to make room and was beaten all ends up. Charani then got into the act as she extracted appreciable turn and bounce at the same time. Gull Feroza (0) tried to hit her against the turn to get caught at short third, while Zulfiqar missed a sweep shot to be adjudged plumb in front.
Ayesha Zafar (2) was strangled as she tried to break the shackles, only to lob an easy catch to Harmanpreet at mid-on. Sadaf Shamas (3) tried to hit her way out on a difficult track against Prema, who bowled straight and hit the stumps.
Pakistan's biggest hope, skipper Fatima Sana (0), got a classical off-break from Deepti Sharma that hit her flush on the pads and could have hit the leg-middle line.
Eyman Fatima (5) and Umm-e Hani (6) were involved in a horrible mix-up leading to the former being run out at the non-striker's end. Hani also perished like many of her teammates, trying a sweep without even having an iota of an idea about the length of the delivery. By then, the contest was over even before India came out to bat.
(With inputs from agencies)
