licked the dust of Pakistan three times in 40 days
The Indian women's team, who have won the Asia Cup title the most 7 times, started their campaign to become champions for the eighth time with a resounding victory. With the win in the match played in Dambulla, Team India avenged their defeat against Pakistan in the last Asia Cup. This is the third time in the last 40 days that such a miracle has happened and three times different teams have defeated Pakistan.
On June 9, Rohit Sharma's team defeated Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Then on 13 July, a team of former players under the captaincy of Harbhajan Singh defeated Pakistan in the final of the World Championship of Legends. Now on July 19, under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian women's team defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets in the first match of the Asia Cup 2024.
The eighth Women's Asia Cup Z20 tournament began on Friday July 19 in Dambulla. The reigning champions India faced Pakistan in their Group A match on the very first day. The two teams also clashed in the 2022 Asia Cup, in which Pakistan defeated India by 3 runs. In such a situation, India had a chance to avenge the previous defeat. Team India did just that and beat them in a resounding manner. The in-form team India first bowled out Pakistan for just 108 runs and then achieved the target with the loss of just 3 wickets in 14.1 overs. Pakistan captain Nida Dar won the toss and elected to bat first, but her own batsmen proved the decision wrong. Team India's star all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar started to destroy the Pakistani batting with her bowling and sent both the openers back to the pavilion by the fourth over. From here the spinners made Pakistan's situation worse. Shreyanka Patil and Deepti Sharma took wickets one after the other. While Deepti Sharma took 3 wickets including a run out in a single over.
Smriti-Shefali's loud banging
In reply to the target of 109, Team India started aggressively as expected. The duo of Smriti Mandhana and Shefali Verma, who had performed brilliantly in the Test, Test and T20 series against South Africa, once again put on a brilliant partnership and ensured victory. The duo put on an 85-run stand for the first wicket in 9.3 overs to send Pakistan out of the match. Meanwhile, Smriti also hit 5 fours in a single over. However, she could not complete her half-century and was dismissed for 45 runs. Shefali also returned to the pavilion after playing a good innings of 40 runs. Team India made a strong start to the tournament by reaching the target in 14.1 overs.
