Pakistan’s hopes of claiming their first Women’s World Cup victory were hit by rain on Wednesday, with their crucial match against England called off after a second downpour at Colombo’s R. Pramedasa Stadium.
Chasing a revised target of 113 to win after earlier rains reduced the match to 31 overs a side, Pakistan were 34-0 in 6.4 overs when the rains returned to end any chance of the match being completed.
Fatima Sana shone with the ball earlier as England could only score 133-9 after being put into bat. The Pakistan captain finished with figures of 4-27 which featured three of England’s top batsmen including his captain Nat Sciver-Brunt.
England’s innings was interrupted in the 25th minute as rain first arrived in the Sri Lankan capital before play resumed several hours later.
After losing their first three matches in the tournament, Pakistan needed a win to boost their chances of reaching the semi-finals and looked like a team on a mission.
Right in the second over of the first innings, Diana Baig struck after Tammy Bemaunt left one that deflected in and took her off stump – a perfect wicket for Pakistan’s frontline pacer after a no-ball early in the over.
Fatima followed up with an even better delivery, linking Amy Jones’ middle stump with one that was closed after diving into the corridor of uncertainty.
The Pakistani captain followed up with another booming inswinger to catch her counterpart Nat Sciver-Brunt making a mess of his stumps.
Heather Knight was next to follow in the same over as England fell to 39-4 in just the seventh over.
The English team was in all kinds of trouble late in the power play: they lost half their team by just 54, led by the three Fatima scalps.
Alice Capsey had a chance in the 18th over when Muneeba Ali took a regulation catch inside the circle on the square leg off the bowling of Rameen Shamim.
However, Rameen finally got his scalp five overs later when Capsey missed a sweep and was declared lbw on a ball which, according to ball tracking, would have hit leg-stump.
Rain came to the rescue of the English batsmen as their innings hovered at 79-7 in the middle of the innings.
Pakistan were by far the happiest team before the rain-induced break, but memories of Beth Mooney’s hundred that rescued Australia from the brink of disaster after finishing 76-7 must have been on the minds of Fatima’s charges.
After play resumed with the innings reduced to 31 overs per side, England’s Charlie Dean hit some boundaries to help his team cross the 100-run mark before falling to Fatima.
Pakistan’s openers started the innings with a boundary in the first over when Muneeba Ali sent the ball to the fence through point.
Omaima Sohail, returning to the side, hit a couple of boundaries through the covers before rain stopped play in just the seventh over of the innings.
The players also observed a minute’s silence in memory of the player’s father Shawaal Zulfiqar, who died on Monday.
Last week’s defeat against Australia left their knockout hopes hanging by a thread as Pakistan recorded three losses in a row and needed a win today to keep their campaign alive.
Pakistan had made two changes to their team, with Aliya Riaz and Omaima Sohail back in the team.
Speaking during the toss, Fatima said: “It looks like the pitch will spin and we want to take advantage of it. The spinners will want to take advantage… we want to bat longer, build partnerships. We need to finish the games.”
Pakistan women’s all-rounder Syed Aroob Shah on Tuesday said the team was looking to “perform better with the bat” ahead of the England match.
Team member Shawaal would continue with the team after his father passed away in Sialkot, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on the same day.
