India beat Pakistan by six wickets for their first win of the Women’s T20 World Cup, but remain in a precarious position in the group-stage table because of their puzzling approach with the bat.
A heavy defeat by New Zealand saw India’s net run-rate plummet, but they still took 18.5 overs to chase just 106 against their rivals.
It was a comfortable chase in the end with such little scoreboard pressure, but Fatima Sana’s two wickets in two balls in the 16th over, with 26 runs still needed, kept Pakistan in the hunt.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur showed composure with 29 from 24 balls, though she had to retire hurt with two runs required, leaving Sajeevan Sajana to hit the winning runs from her first ball.
The nerves had increased because there was such little intent or urgency throughout the modest chase, with the usually aggressive opener Shafali Verma making 32 from 35 balls and Jemimah Rodrigues adding 23 from 28.
Bowlers dominated in both innings, with no batter looking particularly comfortable in timing the ball as seamer Arundhati Reddy starred with 3-19 for India.
Nida Dar top-scored with 28 from 34 balls for Pakistan but they lost wickets regularly, and failed to put a decent partnership together to put India’s bowlers under the pump.
In contrast, India managed to keep wickets in hand, which made their approach even more perplexing as they crawled to 25-1 after the six-over powerplay without hitting a boundary.
But they are off the mark and though they will be favourites in their next match against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, are still under huge pressure to reach the semi-finals with defending champions Australia still to come in their group.
Pakistan are also still in contention but also face a significant challenge as Australia are their next opponents on Friday.