Indian eves beat Pak to keep semi-final hopes alive

PTI Dubai: Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's years of experience saved India from blushes as they huffed and puffed to a six wicket win over arch rivals Pakistan, keeping their semi-final hopes alive in the Women's T20 World Cup, here Sunday. Indian batters made a heavy weather of a paltry 106-run target as it required a 24-ball-29 from their experienced skipper to eke out the crucial win. Harmanpreet retired hurt when two runs were required for victory. Sajana Sajeevan, playing her first game, finished it off with a boundary. The defensive approach by opener Shafali Verma (32 off 35 balls) and new No. 3 Jemimah Rodrigues (23 off 28 balls) meant that India could not boost their Net Run Rate which could prove very costly in the larger context of making it to the lastfour stage.

Despite the victory, India's NRR is currently -1.217 and they remain below Pakistan, who are in third place with NRR of -0.555. India would need to beat both Australia and Sri Lanka by comfortable margins to harbour any hopes of a semi-final berth. The entire Indian innings had only five boundaries and none of the top three looked like getting a move on. The chase was not exactly a cakewalk as Smriti Mandhana (7 off 16 balls) was out early while Shafali and Jemimah concentrated on taking singles. The running between the wickets wasn't impressive as some easy doubles and a sure triple was not even tried, probably due to sapping heat. Even as Jemimah showed some interest in pushing fielders, Shafali's poor fitness came in the way.

Despite a negative net run-rate of -2.90, there was no intent shown by the Indian batters to surpass the paltry target in a good time. Shafali could hit only three shots to the fence in her 35-ball knock and she increased the pressure on the batting unit with the belowpar effort. As far as Jemimah was concerned, power isn't diminutive Mumbaikar's forte as she is more of a batter who relies on timing and ability to find gaps. Once Fatima removed both Jemimah and Richa Ghosh (0) off successive deliveries, the onus was on Harmanpreet to take the team past home. Earlier, the Indian bowling unit fired in unison against a clueless Pakistan.