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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Andhra to be developed as knowledge, creator economy hub: CM Naidu
New Delhi/Amaravati (PTI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday said the state is taking steps to transform itself into a knowledge and creator economy hub with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and quantum technology.
He noted that Andhra Pradesh has abundant tech-driven youth and the government is formulating plans to train them in futuristic technologies with support from global technology firms.
"Our goal is to transform Andhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub by focusing on AI, quantum computing, data centres, drone cities and space cities. The youth will remain our biggest asset over the next 25 years, and we seek global partnerships to scale up the creator economy," said Naidu during his interactions at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi.
Naidu, who participated in the summit in the national capital, also held meetings with several global technology leaders and industrialists to explore collaborations in artificial intelligence, clean energy and innovation ecosystems.
He met Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Autodesk AI Head Mike Haley, Aramco India Director Abdul Rehman AiThukair, LEGO Education Vice President Tom Hall, Aadhaar Founder and CTO Srikanth Nadhamuni, Khosla Ventures Managing Partner Vinod Khosla and others at the AP Pavilion.
The chief minister also held discussions with Saudi Aramco representatives on clean energy projects, including solar initiatives, and invited the company to expand operations in Andhra Pradesh, stating that the state is highly suitable for green energy production.
He sought support from NVIDIA Vice President Callista Redmond for establishing AI Living Labs and proposed partnerships through the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub to promote youth innovation, including collaborations with IIT Tirupati and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati under the Andhra Pradesh Future Innovation and Research for Science and Technology (AP FIRST) initiative.
Naidu urged Autodesk leadership to support the development of Global Capability Centres in design engineering and requested the establishment of an Innovation Academy in Amaravati aligned with quantum technology, besides proposing AI and robotics learning labs in partnership with LEGO Education.
He also discussed AI-driven smart governance solutions with Quantela Inc Chairman Sridhar Gadhi, while World Bank Group Digital AI Regional Director Mahesh Uttamchandani met Naidu on the sidelines of the summit.
Following the meetings, Naidu visited various exhibition stalls at the summit, including those of NVIDIA, Tata, Intel and Microsoft, and reviewed AI applications across agriculture, healthcare and industry.
