Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: New Zealand beat Pakistan by 54 runs, end India’s hopes for semis spot

Dubai: India crashed out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup as New Zealand came up with a brilliant all-round performance to defeat Pakistan in their last league match and finish with six points. India was hoping for Pakistan to beat the White Ferns in the match and those hopes had soared when New Zealand were restricted to only 110 after electing to bat first.

But leg-break bowler Amelia Kerr claimed three wickets to top a superb bowling and fielding effort that helped New Zealand thrash Pakistan by 54 runs and sealed their place in the semifinals, ending India’s hopes here on Monday.

Chasing a modest total of 111, the Pakistan batters went in with an aggressive approach to shore up their Net Run Rate to overtake India and New Zealand on the quotient and seal a place in the semifinals. But the New Zealand bowlers thwarted Pakistan’s efforts as they came back strongly to bowl them out for 56 runs in 11.4 overs, thus sealing their place in the semifinals with six points, finishing behind Australia (8). India finished third in the group with four points.

Both India’s and Pakistan’s hopes depended on a defeat for New Zealand. Pakistan needed to chase down the target in 10.4 overs while India would have qualified if their neighbours had taken more than 10.4 overs. Muneeba Ali (15 from 11) set the tone for Pakistan’s initial approach but things went south for them as Muneeba, Aliya Riaz (0), Sadaf Shamas (2) and Iram Javed (3) all departed early as the required rate began to soar.

Pakistan failed to maintain the tempo and lost wickets at quick intervals, losing three wickets in the 12th over bowled by Kerr one of them a run-out. Syeda Aroob Shah was run out on the first ball of the 12th over and then Kerr claimed Fatima Sana and Sadia Iqbal off successive balls to claim a memorable victory for New Zealand.

Skipper Fatima Sana top scored for Pakistan with 21 runs as only two of their batters reached double figures. Four batters got out for zero each while two were run out as New Zealand fielded brilliantly.

Earlier, Suzie Bates top-scored with 28 and plenty of New Zealand batters got starts, but Pakistan’s spinners kept the total under control, with Nashra Sandhu the pick of the bowlers with 3/18.

Catches were shelled throughout the innings under the lights in Dubai, but Fatima Sana held on to her fourth catch of the innings to dismiss Maddy Green off the last ball, leaving her side needing 111 to win.

After captain Sophie Devine won the toss and decided to bat first, the White Ferns got off to a strong start, reaching 39/0 at the end of the powerplay with Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer looking in good touch.

But Pakistan hit back through the middle overs, as Nashra Sandhu bagged both openers. Plimmer was first to go for 17 (from 14 balls), with Bates falling two overs later for 28 (29).

The dangerous Melie Kerr struggled to get going, scrapping to 9 (17) before being caught by returning Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, her second grab of the innings.

Sophie Devine and Brooke Halliday rebuilt, steering New Zealand towards a decent total, but the excellence of Pakistan’s spinners meant that an insurmountable first-innings score was well out of reach heading into the death overs. A smart stumping from Muneeba Ali ended Halliday’s time in the middle (22 from 24), and the skipper took two more catches to send back Devine (19 from 25) and Maddy Green (9 from 7).

But eight catches went down in all in the innings, including three in the final over, as Pakistan missed the opportunity to restrict New Zealand even further.