Pakistan Women will play Hong Kong Women in a Group A tie at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday, with the Pakistan taking on Hong Kong with a place in semi finals up for grabs.
The current second placed Group A fixture having begun their Women Asia Cup journey with a seven wicket victory over Thailand before registering a crushing seven wicket loss to their traditional rival India, being cleaned up for a sum total of 55.
A win in today’s fixture would push Pakistan to four points and in turn the semi-finalists alongside already qualified India having piled on six points from their fixture with other opposition in the groups.
Hong Kong in the previous three fixture come into the tie needing to beat their opposition and gain points, to get out of the Group on their tournament’s journey, but under a huge cloud.
Being placed last in the Group without a single point having played two fixture of a high flying India having crushed them with137 runs by dismissing the Hong Kong side at 56 all out in their first fixtures of this tournament.
they now have a run rate of -3.575 and cannot afford to not be at their best in today’s contest, this possibly being their best chance to register the sides first win of the tourney.
Pakistan won the toss at this contest and chose to bat opting for belief in making a quick comeback from the fixture with India with a solid beginning from the top in her 100th T20 international fixture appearance with opener Muneeba Ali coming out for it accompanied with Shawaal Zulfiqar top ordering the fixture for a respectable score.
Pakistan looked to post a respectable batting effort on a batting friendly wicket that seemed difficult to score.
Having made fifty runs in the second powerplay, after scoring just 50-2 in 6 overs , Pakistan's middle order look to restore belief and build on the power play effort as scoring rocketed over eight runs per over throughout this stretch.
Hong Kong's attacking minded leader Natasha Miles along with support like Mariko Hill and Iqra Sahar would be hoping to take on the conditions that blighted Pakistan’s batting against India just 48-hours ago.
In a unchanged playing X1 compared to the previous fixture ,the team is banking on tidiness as well as an improved standard of fielding to ensure the Pakistan team does not reach its desired high-scoring endeavor.
The wider picture surrounding Group A provides even more food for thought. Sri Lanka are guaranteed their own semi final thanks to their four-wicket victory over Bangladesh and could end up facing the Green Shirts in the semi final should they finish runner-up in the Green Shirts’ group.
India plays in the first semi final against the winner of the Bangladesh-UEA match to be held at Dubai Sports City next Tuesday, and it does not reflect on just how quickly we are heading to the sharp end of the tournament.
If Pakistan were beaten comfortably then, in light of their huge superior net run rate over Thailand, it would perhaps not prove terminal on the road to their next stage of the competition, yet it would indeed create an opportunity for either Thailand or Hong Kongto overtake them on the table.
That, in turn, seems to be playing its role, making it difficult to predict on it as relatively plain-sailing against considerably lower-ranked opposition expected, it would seemed at least to be.
