‘Silly mistake’ by green shirts hand victory to India in Women’s T20

Pakistan’s batters gifted India 10 penalty runs by consistently running on the pitch as they succumbed to a seven-wicket defeat by their rivals in the Women’s World Twenty20 on Sunday.

Underdogs Pakistan posted a challenging total of 133-7 in Guyana thanks to fifties from Bismah Maroof and Nida Dar, but twice were penalised five runs for running down the middle of the pitch, including on the final ball of their innings.

“Look, it’s a silly mistake from us, we shouldn’t do this kind of thing and we should learn from this,” Dar admitted.

India are top of the early Group B table after also beating New Zealand in their opening match on Friday, while Pakistan have suffered two straight losses.

Mithali Raj, India ‘s record run-scorer in T20 internationals, opened the batting and struck a 47-ball 56 as last year’s World Cup runners-up made the most of their headstart to wrap up victory with an over to spare.

After a dominant performance against New Zealand in which captain Harmanpreet Kaur became the first Indian woman to score a T20I century, her side were sloppy and dropped five catches in the field.

“It will be playing on our minds that we shouldn’t be doing the same mistakes in the coming matches because at some point it might cost us,” admitted Raj.

India next face Ireland on Thursday, after Pakistan also take on the lowest-ranked team in the tournament on Tuesday.

AFP