Mithali Raj leads India to Asia Cup victory

Indian women beat Pakistan women by 17 runs to emerge as the champions of the Asian Cricket Council Women’s T20 Asia Cup at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground, Bangkok. With this win, the Women in Blue ended unconquered in the tournament, having won all the previous matches.

Opener Mithali Raj was yet again the star performer for India. Riding on her unbeaten 65 ball 74 runs knock, India, after electing to bat first, posted a competitive total of 121/5. In response, started off steadily before losing the steam and trailed far behind the required run rate which eventually meant that they managed just 104/6 at the end of the 20 overs.

It wasn’t exactly a satisfying win, though. One look at the scorecards speaks for it. While the bowling was commendable as usual and played the key role in the victory, the batting looked very frail and hugely depended on the success of senior pro Mithali Raj. Mithali continued to justify her reputation of being the most illustrious batswomen India has ever seen.

Opening the innings, Mithali carried her bat through the innings and contributing more that 60 percent of the overall score. The rest of the top order batswomen consisting of S. Mandhana, S. Meghna, V. Krishnamurthy and Harmanpreet Kaur managed merely 32 runs among them. Jhulan Goswami was the second most successful batswomen today after playing an appreciable cameo if 17*.

The day began in a pretty unusual manner which saw opening bowler Asmavia Iqbal bowling a 12 ball over consisting of 6 wides deliveries. Skipper Sana Mir then brought herself into the attack and replaced Asmavia with Anam Amin. The decision paid off as Amin struck in her first over itself, snapping S. Mandhana (5).

Mithali Raj, however, ensured the momentum was not hurt by the early wicket and piloted the innings smoothly, hitting boundaries at regular intervals. But, unfortunately, just when India’ innings looked like it was taking off, the Javeria Khan and wicket-keeper Sidra Mirwaif pair ran out the struggling Meghana and got Pakistan a crucial breakthrough.

Veda Krishnamurthy and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur could not sustain with the free flowing Mithali Raj and departed for single digit scores. Support finally came in the form of Jhulan who batted in her usual attacking manner to help India end on a high note.

Chasing the target was challenging. Pakistan, however, started off quite optimistically and in fact carried on batted in the same way. But, unfortunately completely forgot to keep up with the required run rate factor and let the match slip away despite having wickets in the hands.

Pakistan’s chase never gathered enough momentum to threaten the Women in Blue. Openers Ayesha Zafar and Javeria Khan added 24 runs for the opening wicket before the former lost her wicket in the 5th over. Javeria Khan then Bismah Maharoof and carried the chase forward before Shikha Pandey broke the dangerous pair in the 10 over with the wicket of Javeria (22). Bismah continued to accumulate runs and kept Pakistan in the contest before Indian bowlers swung the game completely in their favour.

Pakistan’s downfall began with the loss of Bismah (25) who lost her wicket to Anuja Patil. The game was still equally poised with Pakistan needing 47 from 6.3 overs but with Preeti Bose and Ekta Bist further claiming one wicket each, Pakistan completely lost their rhythm and eventually fell short of the target.

Brief Score:

India Women: 121/5 (Mithali Raj 73; Anam Amin 2/24)

Pakistan Women: 104/6 (Bismah Maroof 25; Ekta Bist 2/22)

Player of the match – Mithali Raj (India Women)

Player of the series – Mithali Raj (India Women)