Shree Charani, Prema Rawat spin Pakistan out for 55 in one-sided contest

India suffered an early wobble in the chase but sealed the game with seven wickets and 68 balls to spare

India 57 for 3 (Harmanpreet 18*, Sana 3-17) beat Pakistan 55 (Shree Charani 3-7, Rawat 3-9) by seven wickets

Pakistan were bowled out for 55, their lowest total in T20I cricket. A collapse where they lost six wickets for eight runs in 29 balls set them so far back that they couldn't even bat out 20 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur, who broke new ground by becoming the first player - male or female - to lead her team 150 times in T20Is, had the time of her life celebrating each wicket and eventually scoring the winning runs as well.

Shree Charani shines

Old-fashioned left-arm spin is having a resurgence. India men have found Manav Suthar. India women already had N Shree Charani. The No. 1-ranked T20I bowler in the world picked up two wickets in her first over on Saturday. The flight on the ball drew Gull Feroza out of her crease. The drift in had her looking leg side. The dip and the turn resulted in a leading edge and a simple catch to point. The bowler did everything right. The batter did everything wrong. Shawaal Zulfiqar was the only Pakistan batter to put any kind of pressure on India. Charani had her lbw for 14 off 14 and from there it was a procession.

Pakistan's batting troubles

Playing their 200th T20I, Pakistan went from 27 for 0 to 35 for 6 before the innings was halfway done. They could not find a risk-free way to score runs, absorbing long periods of dot balls and trying to get out of it by playing low-percentage shots, often against the turn, on a Dubai pitch that was offering plenty of it. Only the openers got to double digits and only Zulfiqar was able to score a run a ball.N Shree Charani was named the Player of the Match•Creimas for BCCI

Rawat's support act

Prema Rawat finished with figures of 4-0-9-3. Nineteen of her 24 balls were dots. All of that is remarkable considering she is a legspinner, whose release points tend to be just shy of the perpendicular. Like Shane Warne. From there, they turn their wrist over and it can either be awesome or awful. Rawat's release point is perpendicular, maybe even beyond it, like Rashid Khan's. And she doesn't turn her wrist. For the most part, she just flicks the ball out the front of her hand. This gives her better control at the cost of big turn and in T20Is, that trade-off is well worth it. Nobody could hit Rawat off her line and length and when Sadaf Shamas tried, she got bowled off her pads.

In the lead-up to this game, Deepti Sharma said India were one step ahead of Pakistan. The events on the field backed that up. Pratika Rawal dropped two catches. It didn't matter. Deepti herself almost fumbled a run-out but the mix-up between Eyman Fatima and Umm-e-Hani was so bad that there was still time to recover the ball, break the stumps and secure the wicket. The good thing for Pakistan is they are still in the running for a semi-final spot. All they need to do is beat Hong Kong. But this kind of batting will almost certainly let them down if it continues in the knockout stages.

A simple enough chase

India suffered an early wobble with Fatima Sana picking up two wickets in the second over, including Shafali Verma, who brought up 3000 T20I runs. Smriti Mandhana also fell to the Pakistan captain in a slightly contentious lbw decision. The ball, from over the wicket, looked like it was pitching just a shade outside leg stump but with no DRS in use at this tournament, it could not be confirmed one way or the other. Harmanpreet and Deepti finished the game off with seven wickets and 68 balls to spare.