India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in Women's T20 World Cup
Dubai, Oct 6: Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's years of experience saved India from blushes as they huffed and puffed to a six wicket win over arch rivals Pakistan, keeping their semi-final hopes alive in the Women's T20 World Cup, here Sunday.
Indian batters made a heavy weather of a paltry 106-run target as it required a 24-ball-29 from their experienced skipper to eke out the crucial win.
Harmanpreet retired hurt when two runs were required for victory. Sajana Sajeevan, playing her first game, finished it off with a boundary.
The defensive approach by opener Shafali Verma (32 off 35 balls) and new No. 3 Jemimah Rodrigues (23 off 28 balls) meant that India could not boost their Net Run Rate which could prove very costly in the larger context of making it to the last-four stage.
Despite the victory, India's NRR is currently -1.217 and they remain below Pakistan, who are in third place with NRR of -0.555.
India would need to beat both Australia and Sri Lanka by comfortable margins to harbour any hopes of a semi-final berth.
The entire Indian innings had only five boundaries and none of the top three looked like getting a move on.
The chase was not exactly a cakewalk as Smriti Mandhana (7 off 16 balls) was out early while Shafali and Jemimah concentrated on taking singles.
The running between the wickets wasn't impressive as some easy doubles and a sure triple was not even tried, probably due to sapping heat. Even as Jemimah showed some interest in pushing fielders, Shafali's poor fitness came in the way.
Despite a negative net run-rate of -2.90, there was no intent shown by the Indian batters to surpass the paltry target in a good time.
Shafali could hit only three shots to the fence in her 35-ball knock and she increased the pressure on the batting unit with the below-par effort.
As far as Jemimah was concerned, power isn't diminutive Mumbaikar's forte as she is more of a batter who relies on timing and ability to find gaps.
Once Fatima removed both Jemimah and Richa Ghosh (0) off successive deliveries, the onus was on Harmanpreet to take the team past home.
Earlier, the Indian bowling unit fired in unison against a clueless Pakistan, restricting the arch-rivals to a lowly 105 for 8.
Having conceded 160 against New Zealand on a slow track under lights in their opener, the Indian bowlers read the pitch well, and more importantly, took the pace off deliveries to make stroke-making all the more difficult.
Such was their control that Indian bowlers were able to deliver 58 dot balls.
Seamers Renuka Singh Thakur (1/23) and Arundhati Reddy (3/19) neither erred in line nor in length while off-spinners Deepti Sharma (1/24) and Shreyanka Patil (2/12) got enough grip and bounce to keep the Pakistani batters on tenterhooks.
Leg-spinner Asha Sobhana (1/24) went for a few boundaries but got rival skipper Fatima with a big leg-break after the batter was brilliantly snapped by Richa Ghosh behind the stumps.
Renuka bowled a tight first over and her inswinger had Gull Feroza (0) bowled through the gate.
Deepti, who gave a much better account of herself, albeit against an inferior batting lineup, decreased the pace of her deliveries and also flighted a few.
Pakistan managed only 29 for 2 in the powerplay and the Indian bowlers increased their stranglehold on the opposition batters with only Nida Dar's 28 providing some resistance to take the team past 100-run mark.
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Mohsin's fifer helps LSG restrict KKR to 155/7 despite Rinku's 83
Lucknow (PTI): Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mohsin Khan added another sordid chapter to Kolkata Knight Riders' batting woes, taking five wickets to restrict the three-time champions to a modest 155 for seven in their IPL match here on Sunday.
Mohsin’s 5 for 23, a personal best for the left-arm pacer in this format, tore apart an already struggling KKR batting unit, as he snaffled the cream wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Tim Seifert, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy.
Rinku Singh (83 not out, 51 balls) made a well-paced fifty and punished Mohammed Shami in the 19th over for 6, 4, 4 and the smoked four sixes in a row against spinner Digvesh Rathi as KKR made 43 runs in the last two overs to go past the 150-run mark.
But his fifty remained a lone act, as Mohsin firmly stood in the limelight.
His bowling ethos were rooted in simple tactics — bang the ball into the black soil pitch to gain bounce or use cutters at various pace to keep the batters guessing.
Mohsin, who started the night with a wicket maiden, showed his variety across two dismissals.
He followed Rahane with a fuller ball as the batter tried to go over the covers, but the ball’s trajectory forced the KKR skipper to just slice the ball up for a simple catch for Aiden Markram.
The 27-year-old stayed calm when Green, who looked comfortable out there while smashing George Linde for two successive sixes, slammed him for a huge maximum.
Two balls later, Mohsin dug one short, challenging Green (34) to go for the pull and the Australian all-rounder took the bait.
The into-the-body angle worked again as Green could only sky the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Green’s ouster also ended a fifth wicket alliance worth 42 with Rinku Singh.
Bizarre dismissal of Raghuvanshi
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If the existing turmoil was not enough, KKR had to bear the dejection of seeing Angkrish Raghuvanshi getting dismissed obstructing the field.
On the final ball of the fifth over from Prince Yadav, Raghuvanshi nudged one towards mid-on and set off for a single, only to be rejected by Green.
Raghuvanshi put in a dive to save himself but he came in the line of the throw from Shami.
Subsequently, third umpire Rohit Pandit accepted LSG’s appeal and decided that the batter’s turning radius was more than required, eventually resulting in the batter’s dismissal in a rare manner.
