PAKW vs UAEW 17th Match, W-Asia Cup 2022

Aliya Riaz | Player of the Match: "I am very happy. Bismah gave me the chance to bat at number 5 today. I tried to play according to the situation. We wanted to have a go at the UAE-W start attacking, I built a partnership with Muneeba first and then with Nida who helped me a lot and she gave me a lot of confidence where we were batting together."

Pakistan wins the match by 71 runs and have outplayed the UAE-W in all 3 departments today and have booked their spot in the Semi-Finals. Chasing 146, UAE-W just didn’t have the right intent, their bowling was decent but lots of work need to be put into the batting department.  

Earlier in the day, UAE-W won the toss and opted to bowl first. The Pakistan openers Muneeba Ali and Sidra Ameen got off to a slow start as Pakistan only managed only get 34 runs in the powerplay.

Sidra Ameen was dismissed on the first ball of the 4^th by Esha Oza. Muneeba and Captain Bismah Maroof stitched a good partnership and but Esha Rohit Oza got back-to-back wickets in the 8th over, Pakistan at this point were 3 down with 41 runs on the board. Maroof 7(12) was the first one to depart followed by the wicket of Omaima Sohail 0(1). 

6th wicket partnership of 67 runs between Riaz and Nida Dar completely shifted the momentum towards the Pakistan side. Riaz got to her maiden T20I half-century as she finished with 57(36), including 5 fours and 3 maximums, she was ably helped by Nida Dar and together they took Pakistan to a formidable score of 145/5 in their 20 overs.  

Esha Orza and Satish walked out to open the batting for UAE-W, they started off slow and could never get going, Pakistan bowlers bowled some tight lines not allowing the batters to settle down. Oza was dismissed on the first ball of the 3rd over by Aiman Anwar, Kavisha and Satish straight a much-needed partnership but they were very slow in their approach. 

Once Satish and Edodage were dismissed, it was a downward slide for UAE-W, the required run rate has skyrocketed and UAE went nowhere with the chase. Khushi Sharma should some resistance at the end and finished with an unbeaten 20(19), none of the other batters managed to get to the score of 20. Kavish was the second-highest scorer for UAE-W with 18 of 43 deliveries. Theertha Satish scored 14 of 22. 

The rest of the batting struggled as Pakistan kept chipping away with wickets and UAE eventually ended with 74/5 in their allotted 20 overs, falling short by 71 runs!!