Women's Asia Cup 2022: Aliya Riaz, Muneeba Ali shine as Pakistan cruise past UAE

Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates locked horns in the 17^th match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022. As the tournament is nearing an end, all the teams have been giving their best in order to qualify for the semi-finals and Pakistan virtually confirmed themselves a spot with a game to spare in the league stage, by winning the contest by 71 runs.

The game started with UAE winning the toss and electing to bowl first. Pakistan’s start with the bat was slow, and UAE bowlers added misery to their struggle by picking up the in-form opener Sidra Ameen for a very low score of 2(6) in the start of the fourth over. But thereon, wicketkeeper-batter Muneeba Ali picked up the pace and got the game going.

Muneeba kept the scoreboard ticking, and bagged the crucial runs on board while top-order batter and skipper Bismah Maroof played second fiddle. UAE broke the momentum only after the powerplay, in the eighth over when Esha Oza dismissed Maroof and Omaima Sohail off consecutive deliveries, thereby giving her side- UAE- the advantage.

It was then the partnership between Muneeba Ali and Aliya Riaz that helped Pakistan survive the scare. While the former was dismissed in the 14^th over after scoring a 45-ball 43-run knock, the latter was joined by all-rounder Nida Dar and the duo kept going till the end. Riaz notched up an unbeaten half-century and managed to take her side to a big total of 145/5 at the end of the innings.

Pakistan put curtains on UAE's Asia Cup hopes

UAE had the game in their hand till the first half of the first innings, but the bowlers could not stop the flow of runs and Pakistan batters outclassed them. While chasing 146, UAE’s start to the innings did not go the way they had expected it to turn out. Esha Oza gave away her wicket cheaply in the beginning, which resulted in the top-order batters losing momentum and struggling throughout the powerplay.

Their struggle came to an end when Nashra Sandhu managed to dismiss Theertha Sathish. The batters could not find the gap to score the boundaries and kept dealing in singles and doubles, which increased their required run rate and put them under pressure. Pakistan bowlers did really well, as they restricted the batters from scoring runs, and also kept picking runs on a regular basis.

As a result, Pakistan bagged their fourth win of the tournament and secured themselves a semi-finals berth.