Commonwealth Games: Smriti Mandhana stars as India thump Pakistan to collect first win – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India clinched a dominant eight-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the women’s T20I cricket competition at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games on Sunday. This was India’s first victory of the competition, after having lost the first match against Australia from a winning position.

The start of the match was delayed due to rain, and the game was eventually reduced to 18 overs per side. Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat, but that decision backfired as they were bundled out for 99 inside the 18 overs. Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav collected two wickets apiece while Renuka Singh, Meghna Singh and Shafali Verma scalped a wicket each. Wicketkeeper Muneeba Ali was Pakistan’s top-scorer with 32 runs.

In India’s reply, Shafali Verma (16) and Smriti Mandhana (63*) forged a 61-run stand for the opening wicket before the former departed. Mandhana and S Meghana (14) then forged a 33-run stand for the second wicket, but the latter was cleaned up by Omaima Sohail with India needing just six runs to win. Jemimah Rodrigues came in at number four, and she contributed a couple of runs as she and Smriti Mandhana took India over the finish line with more than six overs to spare.

With the victory, India are on top of Group A with two points, while Barbados and Australia (Both on two points each) are placed second and third respectively.

This is Pakistan’s second straight defeat at CWG 2022, having lost to Barbados in their opening match on Friday. India next face Barbados in their final Group A game on Wednesday, while Pakistan face a tough challenge against Australia in their final group game on the same day.

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