India started their T20 World Cup 2023 campaign in South Africa with a morale-boosting 7-wicket win over Pakistan at Cape Town on Sunday, February 12, 2023. Notably, India was without vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, who had suffered a finger injury during practice.
Pakistan’s Bismah Maroof won the toss and chose to bat first. She top-scored with 68* and Ayesha Naseem made 43* as Pakistan posted 149/4 in 20 overs. For India, Radha Yadav took 2/21, while Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar picked one wicket each.
In reply, Shafali Verma gave a brisk start with 33 in 25, but when Nashra Sandhu removed her and Harmanpreet Kaur (16) in quick succession, Jemimah Rodrigues was joined by Richa Ghosh and both counterattacked well against a quality Pakistan bowling attack.
Jemimah remained unbeaten on 53 with 8 fours and Richa made 31* in 20 balls as they added 59* runs for the 4th wicket as India crossed the finish line with one over to go and 7 wickets to spare.
Rodrigues, who was named Player of the Match for her knock, dedicated her knock to her parents who were present in the stadium to watch her play.
“I don’t know what to say. I knew building partnerships, taking it deep we’d end up chasing. Richa and I have built a partnership against Bangladesh, and we could do this today. This innings is really special to me, I haven’t been getting runs for a while but I’ve stuck to his processes. God is grateful, he takes care of the rest. I want to dedicate this to my parents, they are here at the stadium.
This knock goes out to them. We just needed 10 an over, we were going over by over and we knew they would bowl a loose ball so that is what we had to punish. We knew we’d win if we stayed till the end. We’re very happy we’ve won this, momentum is on our side and now we just need to do the simple things correctly and consistently,” Jemimah said at the post-match presentation.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was ecstatic with the win over Pakistan and called it a special victory.
Harmanpreet Kaur said: “It was a good game. Pakistan batted well but we wanted to win and Jemi and Richa played really well. Very sensible batting from both of them. All the players are keen to do well for the team. Whoever gets the opportunity they are pushing themselves. It's a good sign for us. Win against Pakistan is always special. Good game, crowd was fantastic, got good support. We would love to spend some time in the nets and sort out the things we didn't do well today before the West Indies game. It's important to keep doing the right things in the nets too.”
India will next play West Indies on February 15 at the same venue in Cape Town.
(Star Sports inputs)
