Australia women 95 for 5 (Healy 26, Mir 3-26) beat Pakistan women 95 (Mir 21*, Schutt 3-17, Carey 3-19) by five wickets via D/L method
Three-wicket hauls from seamers Megan Schutt and Nicola Carey dismissed Pakistan women for 95 and put Australia women 1-0 up after a rain-hit clash in Kuala Lumpur.
Schutt strangled Pakistan from the beginning, after they opted to bat, with a flurry of maidens and two wickets in her opening spell of 5-3-13-2, accounting for opener Ayesha Zafar and No. 3 Muneeba Ali. Nahida Khan, the other opener, and captain Javeria Khan added 28 for the third wicket before Carey and 19-year-old debutant Georgia Wareham sliced through the rest of the batting line-up. Sophie Molineux, Australia's other debutant, also impressed, with extraordinary figures of 7-2-9-1, with her left-arm spin.
A long rain break after 26 overs in Pakistan's innings - when they were 76 for 6 - reduced the match to 41 overs a side. But they lasted only 11.2 overs after that, to be dismissed for 95. Apart from Nahida and Javeria, Sana Mir was the only other Pakistan player to reach double figures. Mir remained not out on 21 off 60 balls even as wickets tumbled around her. Carey finished with career-best figures of 3 for 19 from seven overs.
Chasing a revised target of 92, Australia began steadily, with openers Alyssa Healy and Nicole Bolton putting on 40 in seven overs. But Mir induced a wobble with her offspin, as Australia went from 40 for 0 to 91 for 5, losing three of those five wickets to Mir. Beth Mooney soon drove through the covers for a four and sealed the chase in 22.2 overs.
Comments