9th over: India 54-2 (Mandhana 28, Kaur 17) Harmanpreet bisects the field wonderfully with a cover drive for four. She then follows up with a powerful sweep to the square boundary. The run rate given a shot in the arm but it’s just those eight runs off the over.
8th over: India 46-2 (Mandhana 28, Kaur 9) Pakistan are doing well to protect the boundaries here, India can’t get away from them. The big shot inevitably comes and is DROPPED! Mandhana should have been on her way there but Aliya Riyaz spilled the chance at long off. How costly will that miss be?
7th over: India 41-2 (Mandhana 26, Kaur 6) Very tidy over from Shamim, just three singles off it, bowling in her baseball cap too.
6th over: India 38-2 (Mandhana 25, Kaur 4) Sana brings herself back but commits the cardinal sin of overstepping with her first ball. Free Hit time… well bowled – Harmanpreet can only dig the yorker out for a single. The batters rotate strike neatly for three singles. Close! Mandhana drives uppishly back past the bowler and Sana can’t quite get her fingers to it in her follow through. It’s timed well enough to race away for four.
5th over: India 30-2 (Mandhana 20, Kaur 2) Pakistan shuffle their pack again, Ramim Shamim the off spinner into the attack. Gah, a drag down is slapped away for four behind square by Mandhana, that was a poor ball. And again, too short and whipped away, you can’t bowl there!
4th over: India 20-2 (Mandhana 11, Kaur 1) Harmanpreet flicks off her pads to get off the mark. Just two runs and the wicket off the first over from left arm seamer Tasmia Rubab. Pressure on India at Edgbaston.
Updated
Here comes Harmanpreet Kaur. India need a captain’s knock from her.
WICKET! Jemimah Rodrigues c Natalia Pervaiz b Tasmia Rubab 1 (India 18-2)
An ugly hoick from Rodrigues and she sends up a skier that is well pouched at the second attempt by Pervaiz in the ring. India lose their second!
Updated
3rd over: India 18-1 (Mandhana 10, Rodrigues 1) Mandhana pings a beautiful cover drive for four and is gifted another four from a misfield at long on. Eight off the over and Smriti looking in dangerous touch.
2nd over: India 10-1 (Mandhana 2, Rodrigues 1) Pakistan’s skipper Fatima Sana has the ball for the second over. Mandhana pulls a short ball to the boundary rider on the leg side and is off the mark with a single. Rodrigues scampers a single to mid on, a direct hit would have been interesting… Mandhana tickles a single off her hip and there are just three runs off a tidy first over from the captain.
1st over: India 7-1 (Mandhana 0, Rodrigues 0) Jemimah Rodrigues arrives in the middle, she’s a class player. She looks at a wide down the leg side and then defends the last ball of a high octane first over. Phew.
WICKET! Shafali Verma c Muneeba Ali b Sadia Iqbal (India 6-1)
Gone! What a first over this is, Verma backs away and gets a fine edge through to the keeper. It’s all happening at Edgbaston!
Updated
Left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal starts for Pakistan and Shafali Verma bunts it over long off for SIX! How’s that for nerves, six off the very first ball of the match! Is there a term for that? I should know really…
Iqbal gathers herself well with three dots and then…
The players head out for the anthems. We’ll be underway very shortly, India looking to set a sizeable target on what looks like a decent batting track.
It’s an official sellout at Edgbaston, there are some Bangladesh and Netherlands fans still in situ after their last over thriller finished a few minutes ago but the decibels are now being dominated by fans of India and Pakistan.
“Clear skies in Edgbaston and there’s a lot going on. India and Pakistan have taken over the outfield while Charles Dagnall leads the post-match interviews after Bangladesh’s last-over win against the Netherlands. I’m on handshake-watch for the toss – yep, you can’t escape the political backdrop to this one.”
Taha sends an update from the ground and confirms that the captain’s did not shake hands.
Teams:
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Shreyanka Patil
Pakistan: Muneeba Ali (wk), Gull Feroza, Ayesha Zafar, Saira Jabeen, Natalia Pervaiz, Aliya Riaz, Fatima Sana (c), Rameen Shamim, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal, Tasmia Rubab
India win the toss and will bat first
Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana toss up in the middle and the coin falls India’s way. India choose to bat and there’s no handshake between the captains… so much for just another game.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to a big old ding dong of a fixture in this WT20I World Cup as India take on Pakistan at Edgbaston.
The corresponding fixture at the men’s tournament earlier in the year had a lot of on and off field noise surrounding it, in comparison the build up to this fixture is relatively subdued.
Take India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur doing a fine job of stonewalling in the pre-match press conference.
We are here for cricket and we only talk about cricket. Except for cricket we don’t talk anything and I don’t even think we know anything except cricket. Cricket has been our dream from day one and we only discuss cricket and for tomorrow’s game we are only thinking about it as another game which we are going to play.”
Just another game? Not likely, there’s always intense rivalry between these two sides and both will be desperate to get their tournament off to a winning start in the hotly contested Group 1.
The match starts at 14.30pm BST and the weather is set fair in Birmingham with a big crowd expected. Taha Hashim is our man on the ground and I’ll try and winkle some gossip, scandal or more likely which bowlers are marking out their run ups out of him in the buildup to the first ball.
Back soon with the toss and teams, do join us.
