The Indian women’s team started their World Cup campaign on a high note by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by 64 runs in a crucial match in the preliminary round of the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match was played at Edgbaston Stadium with a crowd of 18,814, making it the highest ever for a Women’s T20 World Cup preliminary round match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India won the toss and elected to bat first, posting a solid 170 for 6 in their 20 overs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is also the highest total scored by India against Pakistan in the history of the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India’s first two wickets fell for 36 runs, but opener Smriti Mandhana’s aggressive play against the Pakistani bowlers put India in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making the most of the catches dropped by the Pakistani fielders, Mandhana reached her half-century of 68 runs in 34 balls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur provided invaluable support with 36 runs, while Richa Ghosh, who played a fast innings in the last half of the innings, scored 34 not out in 17 balls to take India up the scoreboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chasing a target of 171 runs, Pakistan could only manage 106 runs in 20 overs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muniba Ali was quick to score runs in the opening overs of Pakistan’s innings, helping the team to score 52 runs in the 6 overs of the powerplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the pace of Pakistan’s innings slowed down as the Indian spinners came into action. Muniba Ali was unfortunately run out for 41 runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, Indian spinner Deepti Sharma came into action, destroying the Pakistani back-order and recording the best bowling figures of her T20 international career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She put Pakistan under a lot of pressure with her 5-10-run haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, Sri Charani took 3-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this impressive victory, India took the lead in Group A and their next match is scheduled to be against the Netherlands next Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan is scheduled to play South Africa in the evening of the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Indian women’s team started their World Cup campaign on a high note by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by 64 runs in a crucial match in the preliminary round of the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. The match was played at Edgbaston Stadium with a crowd of 18,814, making it the highest ever for a…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,60,59],"tags":[3139,3148,73,134,72],"class_list":["post-12071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","category-international-cricket","category-womens-cricket","tag-2026-icc-womens-t20-world-cup","tag-indian-womens-team","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news","tag-sri-lanka-cricket"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t