Spinners and all-around talent Fatima Sana give Pakistan a strong start.
Sri Lankan 85 for 9 (Silva 22, Iqbal 3-17) was defeated by Pakistan 116 (Sana 30, Dar 23, Athapaththu 3-18, Sugandika 3-19, Prabodhani 3-20) by 31 runs.
In the first T20 World Cup match between these two countries in ten years, Pakistan's spinners locked down Sri Lanka on a sluggish track at Sharjah after Fatima Sana made a helpful cameo down the order. Pakistan won convincingly by 31 runs. After Chamari Athapaththu fell early in the chase, Pakistan, who had chosen to bat first, struggled and unable to establish any momentum with the bat, eventually being bowled out for 116 runs but still managing to put Sri Lanka at bay.
Even though fast bowler Diana Baig was lost to an apparent calf injury early in the target defence, Fatima Sana's decision to bat was questioned, but the Pakistan captain was vindicated when Sharjah saw little to no dew in the second innings, allowing her spinners to hold sway.
Athapaththu, incidentally, was happy to pursue and had even set his sights on limiting Pakistan to less than 120. Her side came good on that count with a solid bowling effort before Sana played the deciding knock of the game right at the end. Pakistan attempted to push hard during the fielding restrictions, according to their recent trend, but they were continually held back with wickets falling at regular intervals. With the final delivery of the second over, Sugandika Kumari struck, mostly because Anushka Sanjeewani made a brilliant catch behind the stumps to remove Gull Feroza.
Muneeba Ali became the second batter to fall to Sugandika after hitting a six off left-arm medium-pacer Udeshika Prabodhani. This time, Muneeba gained a significant advantage on an attempted cut to an arm delivery from the left-arm spinner, but Sanjeewani behind the stumps held on to a challenging catch anyway. After forcing Sidra Amin to misjudge an attempted slog, Athapaththu completed a return catch to put Pakistan down three for 32 inside the PowerPlay.
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