First international played on home soil in 10 years
KARACHI - September 30, 2015: Pakistan female cricket team drew first blood when they defeated their Bangladesh counterparts by 29 runs in first T20I encounter of the two-match rubber here at Southend Club Ground, Karachi on Wednesday.
The girls in green batting first scored 124 runs for the loss of five wickets. Bismah Maroof was the top scorer with an aggressive knock of 65 runs that also earned her the players of the match award and in response, Bangladesh team could only make 95 for seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
Marina Iqbal and Javeria Khan started off for Pakistan but the former was run out in the very first over when Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun’s direct throw disturbed the furniture. From then on Javeria and Bismah not only controlled the situation but also developed an 87 runs partnership for the second wicket to give stability to the total. Javeria before leaving the crease in the 15th over produced 43 balls 44 runs. She also hit six boundaries. On the other end, Bismah kept on hitting the ball for singles and doubles and on occasions got boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking. Bismah, in her knock timed five boundaries and remained not out. She later took 1 wicket for 14 runs in three overs. On her all-round performance, she was declared the Player of the Match. From Bangladesh’s attack, Nahida Akter in her four overs took two wickets for 17 runs while Jahanara Alam and Fahima Khatun shared one wicket apiece.
In reply, the girls from Bangladesh failed to maintain the required run-rate and were contained well below the average by Pakistan's bowling attack. Only three of their players could reach double figures and that included their opener Ayasha Rahman, who managed nearly run a ball 23, Farghana Haque was the other players who got 23 runs as she faced 36 balls and Rumana Ahmed hit 22 runs in 23 balls. Ayasha and Rumana hit three boundaries each while Farghana timed two fours. Apart from these three batswomen, the performance of the rest of the players remained below par.
Pakistan girls, however, kept a tight leash with the ball allowing the Bangladesh batswomen little room to score freely. As Anam Amin had to her credit two victims, Sumaiya Siddiqui, skipper Sana Mir, Bismah, Nida Dar and Aliya Riaz snared one wicket each.
The teams will now play their second T20I match on Thursday (October 1) followed by two One-day Internationals at the same venue.
Scorecard
Photo Gallery
