LIVE Cricket Score, India vs Pakistan, ACC Women’s Asia Cup T20 2016, Match 7: IND win by 5 wkts

LIVE Cricket Score, IND vs PAK, ACC Women's Asia Cup T20 2016, Match 7: IND win by 5 wkts

Hello and Welcome to CricketCountry’s coverage of Match 7 of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Women’s Asia Cup T20 2016 match between India Women and Pakistan Women at Asian Institute of Technology Ground at Bangkok. This is a crucial match for both the teams as they have four points from their opening two games. But it is India, who are on top as they have a better net run rate. India Women thrashed Nepal Women by 64 runs in the first match and thrashed hosts Thailand by 7 wickets in their second game. Pakistan on the other hand started their campaign with a 9-wicket win over Nepal and then followed it up with a 8-wicket victory over Sri Lanka Women.

The ongoing political tension between these two nations, adds extra spice in this contest between the arch-rivals. In their first match, India Women scored 118 for 6 after Bangladesh Women asked them to bat first. Openers Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandana scored 49 and 41 respectively to help India get to a competitive score. In reply, Bangladesh were bowled out for just 54, handing India a 64-run win. Poonam Yadav, Jhulan Goswami and Anuja Patil picked up 3, 2 and 2 wickets respectively. India Women’s second match was a much easier affair. They were set a target of just 70, which they won by 9 wickets and 53 balls to spare.

Pakistan Women too have had a couple of easy matches so far. After bowling Nepal Women for just 47, they won the match by 9 wickets with 60 balls to spare. In the second match, Pakistan were however made to stretch a bit more. But Javeria Khan’s unbeaten 56 helped Pakistan Women beat Sri Lanka Women by 8 wickets with 20 balls to spare. Pakistan Women were set a target of 113, after Sri Lanka Women scored 112 for 8 in their 20 overs.

Ahead of this tournament, Harmanpreet Kaur was appointed India Women’s T20I captain and in her first assignment, she suffered a 3-0 series whitewash at the hands of World T20 champions West Indies Women. In fact the last time India and Pakistan played a T20I was in the World T20  match, where Pakistan Women edged India Women by 2 runs in a rain-marred match.. However, the previous time these two sides met in a Asia Cup tournament, Harmanpreet was India Women’s star as India romped home to a 18-run win at Guangzhou as India clinched their fifth straight title successfully defending a modest score of 81.

Squads:

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Ekta Bisht, Jhulan Goswami, Mansi Joshi, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Meghna Singh, Shikha Pandey, Anuja Patil, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parween, Preeti Bose, Mithali Raj, Vellaswamy Vanitha, Sushma Verma

Pakistan: Bismah Maroof (c), Javeria Khan, Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Asmavia Iqbal, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Iram Javed, Maham Tariq, Nahida Khan, Nain Abidi, Nida Dar, Sadia Yousuf, Sana Mir, Sidra Nawaz