India Women start their ICC Women's T20 World Cup campaign on a high as they defeat Pakistan by 7 wickets in the high-voltage clash early in the World Cup. After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Pakistan Women started the game with intent. They lost wickets early but looked to put India under pressure as they accumulated 39 runs in the powerplay, which is their highest powerplay score against India in T20s, despite losing a early wicket. They mostly looked to get Deepti Sharma under pressure knowing she going cheap can be problematic. '7-Ball Over?', Fans Shocked As Umpire Fails to Notice Extra Delivery Bowled By Nida Dar During IND vs PAK Match in ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023.

India crawled back into the game with Radha Yadav dismissing Muneeba Ali and then Pooja Vastrakar getting Nida Dar on a duck. As Pakistan looked to build a partnership Radha Yadav broke through again this time dismissing Sidra Ameen. It was then Ayesha Naseem joined captain Bismah Maroof and counter-attacked making India step back a little. Maroof and Ayesha stitched a brilliant partnership with Maroof playing a captain's knock scoring a half-century and taking Pakistan to a challenging total of 149/4. India's fielding was not as per standards of this level as they dropped several catches.

India had to start the chase positively and they did with a good powerplay of 43 runs losing only a single wicket of Yastika Bhatia. But just when Shafali Verma (33) looked to step on the accelerator, she was caught on the boundary. Harmanpreet Kaur joined Jemimah, who was looking in touch and holding the innings from one end. But Harmanpreet had to depart after a short cameo. Nashra Sandhu bagged both wickets as she finished her brilliant spell with figures of 2-15, without conceding a single boundary.

From a make-or-break situation, Richa Ghosh (31) played an impactful cameo supporting Jemimah (53) and took down Aiman Anwer for back-to-back boundaries in an over to take India close to the finishing line.  The dup kept their composure and scores in a brisk pace in the remaining overs to take India over the line in a difficult chase.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 12, 2023 09:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).