Hyderabad: Following India's disappointing start to the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, having faced a massive defeat against New Zealand, the Indian women's cricket team have finally opened their account. The Harmanpreet-led side emerged victorious against Pakistan by six wickets in their second game and kept themselves alive in the competition.
After opting to bat first, Pakistan rode on to Nida Dar's 28 runs and put up a respectable total of 105/8 in their allotted 20 overs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, October 6, 2024. In the chase, Women in Blue chased down the target in 18.5 overs courtesy of healthy contributions from opener Shefali Verma (32 off 35) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (29* off 24). Arundhati Reddy was adjudged Player of the Match as she registered her career-best figures of 3/19 in four overs.
That winning feeling 😃👌
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) October 6, 2024
📸: ICC
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/eqdkvWWhTP#TeamIndia | #T20WorldCup | #INDvPAK | #WomenInBlue pic.twitter.com/4ADqGn4Sxl
Following their victory, India managed to go one place up in the points table and occupied the fourth spot in the five-team group with one win from two matches. India had their best chance to improve the net run rate by wrapping up the chase in a quick time as they needed to score at a pace less than run-a-ball. They took nearly 19 overs to chase a 106-run target and that slightly improved India's Net Run Rate (NRR) from -2.90 to -1.217. To bring their net run rate into positive, Harmanpreet's women had to reach the total in 11 overs, which would’ve brought their NRR to +0.084. India have the second-worst NRR in Group A.
Notably, India still has the worst run rate among teams who’ve won in Group A with New Zealand (+2.900), Australia (+1.908) and Pakistan (+0.555) sitting above them. The Indian team will next square off against Asian Champions Sri Lanka, who haven't seen a win in the tournament so far, on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
The Women in Blue will desperately need to beat Sri Lanka, who have suffered defeats against six-time champions Australia and Pakistan, by a huge margin to get their net run rate into positive before they face the defending champions Australia in their last fixture on October 13.
If India doesn’t improve their net run rate in their next fixture, they will have to depend on New Zealand. The Indian team will have to pray that the Kiwis will win all of their remaining matches including a game against Australia. In such a scenario, India will directly advance to the semi-finals by winning their last two fixtures against Sri Lanka and Australia.
However, if Australia beat New Zealand and India win their remaining game, then the three teams will finish on the same points. In such a scenario, India will have to surpass either Australia’s or New Zealand’s net run rate to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament. Hence, their next fixture is extremely critical for them as its result might affect their fate.
