Derby (England): Left-arm spinner : (5/18) came to the fore with a stellar show as India crushed arch rivals Pakistan by 95 runs in a low-scoring encounter to record their third successive victory in the ICC Women’s World Cup here Sunday.
After a couple of impressive outings by the batswomen, it was the turn of Bisht and Co. to defend a meagre total of 169. They responded magnificently to skittle the opposition out for a paltry score of 74 in 38.1 overs. Ekta was well-supported by Manasi Joshi (2/8), Deepti Sharma (1/21), Jhulan Goswami (1/12) and Harmanpreet Kaur (1/6)
India now have six points from three games and are at the top of the table. It was the eves’ 20th victory in 21 games.
Pakistan were all at sea against Ekta’s arm balls. She removed Ayesha Zafar (1), Sidra Nawaz (0) and Iram Javed (0) in her first four overs to wreak havoc. Pakistan never recovered from that setback.
Opener Nahida Khan (23) and skipper Sana Mir (29) were the only ones to reach double figures for Pakistan.
Woman of the match Ekta said: “The plan was to pile on dot balls, because we were confident of the target we set. It worked.”
Earlier, Indian batswomen had a disappointing day as they could only manage a paltry 169 for nine after electing to bat. They lost in-form batswoman Smriti Mandhana (2) early and the innings could never get momentum. Only Poonam Raut (47, 72b, 5×4) and Sushma Verma (33, 35b, 3×4, 1×6) could offer some resistance.
Brief scores: India 169 for 9 (Punam Raut 47, Nashra Sandhu 4/26) beat Pakistan 74 all out (Ekta Bisht 5/18) by 95 runs.