Pakistan Women Beat Sri Lanka Women: In the battle of the Asian giants, it is Pakistan Women that comes out triumphant as they hammered Sri Lanka by 31 runs to kick-start their Women's T20 World Cup 2024 campaign on a positive note. A bowling masterclass led by Sadia Iqbal helped Pakistan Women defend 116 at Sharjah Cricket Ground, as Chamari Athapaththu's side have now recorded consecutive T20I losses.
"Actually first of all, I would like to congratulate young captain Fatima Sana who performed really well and played really good cricket. Definitely, we struggled to chase down the target, the conditions was not batting friendly but we cant give that as an excuse to be honest. We have to learn from our mistakes, dropped a few catches, our bowling department did a good job but we have to bat better in conditions like this. Actually the approach is going to be important in the upcoming games, we know Australia is a dangerous side but if we play fearless cricket, we can beat any side," said Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka Women Captain, during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Fatima Sana Leads Pakistan Women From Front; Earns Player Of The Match Award In First Match As Captain At An ICC Tournament
Pakistan captain Fatima Sana scored a match-winning knock of 30 off 20 balls, and took 2 wickets, as her all-round performance helped Pakistan Women avenge their Asia Cup semi-final defeat against Sri Lanka. The newly-appointed captain had a huge chip on her shoulder and has now successfully answered all the critics with a captain's innings.
"I am very excited and credit goes to my team and the management for this win. I believed in myself and backed myself out there, and tried to be calm. We all know Chamari is a good player, we wanted that early wicket and the if we got it, the match would turn in our favor and it did," said Fatima Sana on being awarded the Player of the Match.
"Thanks to all might Allah and to the management, who gave me a lot of confidence. I think when we won the toss, we wanted to put up runs on the board but unfortunately we could not. We scored as much as we could. Unfortunately, Baig was injured and I was nervous at that time, but I realized I need to bowl and I became calm, I need to check up on her. We want the best momentum from here and we will try to win as much as we can," she added.