England 163 for 6 (Knight 49, Gibson 41*, Jones 37, Waheeda 2-20, Sadia 2-30) beat Pakistan 110 (Sadaf 35, Glenn 4-12, Bell 3-22) by 53 runs
England’s woeful start
Middle-order rebuild
At 11 for 4, still in just the third over, it fell to Knight and Jones to rebuild. Jones, playing her 100th T20I and at her home ground, survived a tough chance at point off Akhtar when she was on 2 and, by the time she drove Fatima Sana through midwicket for four, she and Knight had dragged England up to 29 for 4 at the end of the powerplay. Jones then rocked back and pulled Akhtar for four in the next over and back-to-back fours off Rameen Shamim from Knight, clearing extra cover and swept through square leg, suggested the home side’s recovery was on track. Knight missed a reverse off Dar and was struck on the back knee but managed to overturn her lbw dismissal when the ball was shown to have hit her outside the line of off stump.
Knight didn’t stop when wrist-spinner Tuba Hassan was introduced, thundering a drive over long-on while Jones pulled and swept Rameen for twin fours at the start of the next over, so that by the halfway point of the innings, England were 63 for 4. Jones had been excellent on the sweep but it proved her undoing when she top-edged a Sadia full toss to deep square leg, where Natalia Pervaiz took a cool-headed catch to end her innings on 37 from 27 balls.
Knight cleared the covers to bring up England’s 100 and she and Gibson added 41 runs together before Knight fell one run shy of her half-century, Tuba making the breakthrough as Knight skied the ball to Gull Feroza at mid-on. Ecclestone was put down on 11 by Gull at deep midwicket and Gibson struck Rameen’s next ball to the deep square leg boundary for her fourth four, with another to follow through extra cover in the same over as Gibson made her impact felt. She and Ecclestone put on an unbroken stand worth 44 for the seventh wicket.
Pakistan start chase brightly
Gull punished Bell’s low full toss down the ground for four in the first over and picked the gap beautifully through the covers for another boundary two balls later. Dean struck with her fourth ball when she trapped Sidra Ameen lbw. But Gibson conceded 21 runs off the next over as Sadaf Shamas picked off five boundaries with a combination of cover drives, a powerful shot over point, a flick past square leg and a cut to backward point.
Jones took a wonderful diving catch to her left to remove Gull via an inside-edge off Bell and she needed far less effort to gather Muneeba’s top edge as she attempted to reverse-sweep Glenn, leaving Pakistan 66 for 3 in the eighth over. Dar was still running a single as she called for a review of her lbw dismissal off Glenn, which was overturned as replays showed the ball came off her glove. Sadaf fell to an unnecessary run-out when Dar dabbed a Dean delivery to midwicket and set off for a single that wasn’t on. Capsey gathered and threw to Jones with Sadaf well short of her ground, prematurely ending a promising knock of 35 off 24.
Visitors fall apart
From there, Pakistan’s pursuit fell apart. Dar’s slog-sweep off Glenn sailed towards Bouchier, who ran across from deep midwicket to make a difficult catch look effortless in front of a delighted Hollies stand. Pervaiz’s attempted late cut off Ecclestone ended with a faint edge landing in Jones’s gloves as Pakistan lost three wickets for six runs in the space of 10 balls. Bell took her second wicket when Rameem Shamim sent one high to deep midwicket as Wyatt ran a long way in to take a superb catch diving forwards. Glenn claimed two wickets in three balls when she had Tuba caught behind and bowled Akhtar with a beautiful leg-break. Bell claimed the last as Sadia was caught by Kemp to wrap up victory with 10 balls to spare.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
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