On January 24, 2023, here in this location, the Pakistan Women’s U19 team was eliminated from the ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup after losing to New Zealand in a Super Six stage Group-2 match.
Pakistan was assigned a challenging 179-run target, but they could only reach 75-7 in their 20 overs, falling 103 runs short of New Zealand’s total in the first innings. As they continued their tournament-long unbeaten streak, New Zealand’s massive victory secured their place in the semi-finals.
By the end of the Powerplay, Pakistan’s pursuit was in trouble at 17-4 due to a top-order collapse. Opening batsmen Shawaal Zulfiqar and in-form Eyman Fatima were both out for ducks, and Warda Yousaf lost her wicket as a result of a run out after a misunderstanding with her captain Syeda Aroob Shah. Aroob was the fourth batter to strike out when the fielder at mid-off pouched a leading edge that Natasha Codyre had caused.
Laiba Nasir was run out for 19, which meant that half the team was out for the day, before Areesha Noor and Aliza Khan put up a partnership of 32 runs for the sixth wicket.
Pakistan only managed to hit four boundaries throughout the entirety of their innings, with Areesha (who had 24) scoring the most with two fours, followed by Aroob and Anoosha Nasir, who each had one.
Anoosha continued to dominate on the bowling front, taking three wickets for 32 runs to bring her tournament total to ten in five games, now dominating the tables. She broke the quick-fire opening partnership of Emma McLeod (32) and Anna Browning (31), who scored 47 runs in 29 balls together. In the penultimate over of the innings, she also claimed the wickets of Georgia Plimmer (53) and Paige Loggenberg (0).
In addition to bowling a tight spell, the captain Aroob outwitted Tash Wakelin (8) with a googly that rattled the stumps while conceding just 22 runs in her four overs.
New Zealand soon reached 178-7 thanks to their aggressive strokeplay, which produced a total of 19 fours and two sixes in contrast to Pakistan’s later in the game inability to strike boundaries. Plimmer was her team’s best batter and helped them build on their strong start from the openers with a 38-ball 53 that had five fours.
The remaining two slots from Group-1 will be decided tomorrow. New Zealand and England are the two teams from Super Six Group-2 moving on to the semi-finals.
During their first ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup campaign, Pakistan put in strong performances to overcome England and New Zealand while defeating Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.
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