Women’s Asia Cup: Charani, Prema Pick Three Each As India Bowl Out Pakistan For Just 55

Women's Asia Cup: India's Spin Quartet Skittle Pakistan for 55

Group A clash at Dubai International Stadium, Saturday — India's spinners had Pakistan well and truly beaten. electing to bat first (a call that surprised plenty), Pakistan looked anything but comfortable from the first ball.

Openers Shawaal Zulfiqar and Muneeba Ali showed a bit of intent — Shawaal hit consecutive bouncers off Kranti Gaud and Nandni Sharma, while Muneeba survived two dropped chances off Pratika Rawal. But off-spinner Shafali Verma broke the shackles by stumping Muneeba for 13, and that triggered a total collapse.

The magic came from two spinners in particular:

- N Sree Charani — 3/37 from 4 overs. Struck twice in the final powerplay over (Gull Feroza duck, Shawaal lbw 14), then had Ayesha Zafar caught by Harmanpreet Kaur at midon.

- Prema Rawat — 3/39 from 4 overs. Clean-bowled Sadaf Shamas, then caught Nashra Sandhu off her own bowling to complete her hat-trick of wickets.

Deepti Sharma and Shafali each added a scalping too, with Deepti skittling Tuba Hassan (9) before WK Richa Ghosh pulled off a sharp stumping. Pakistan went from 27/0 to 55/6 — their lowest-ever Women's T20I total.

The read: On a pitch with real grip and sharp turn, India's spin quarter (Charani, Prema, Deepti, Shafali) was simply unplayable. Only two Pakistani batters reached double figures.

India are now overwhelming favourites at 56 required — and a win would see them close out the league stage as the lone unbeaten side in Group A.

Pakistan 55 all out (18.1 ov) | Shawaal 14, Muneeba 13

Source: Cricketnmore