Scotland crush Pakistan in Women’s T20 World Cup warm-up match

DUBAI: Kathryn Bryce returned brilliant figures of 3/22 before openers Saskia Horley and Sarah Bryce steered Scotland to a thumping eight-wicket victory over Pakistan in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match on Saturday.

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana’s decision to bat first backfired as the Green Shirts only managed 132/9 in the allotted 20 overs.

The Green Shirts had a shaky start to their innings as opener Sadaf Shams (2) fell victim to Bryce in the second over with just 10 runs on the board.

Olivia Bell inflicted further damage to Pakistan’s batting expedition by getting rid of Sidra Amin and Nida Dar, four each, in her successive overs while Abtaha Maqsood removed opener Gull Feroza (14) to help Scotland reduce Pakistan to 35/4 in 6.4 overs.

Wicketkeeper batter Muneeba Ali then forged an anchoring partnership with Omaima Sohail.

The fifth-wicket stand yielded 33 runs before Muneeba was dismissed by Katherine Fraser in the 11th over. She smashed three boundaries on her way to a 22-ball 27.

Omaima, on the other hand, put together notable partnerships with Aliya Riaz (10) and skipper Fatima Sana before finally perishing in the penultimate over.

The middle-order batter remained the top-scorer for Pakistan with a 29-ball 30 which included a boundary.

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Fatima Sana and Iram Javed then gave a late push to Pakistan’s total with brisk cameos. Iram made a nine-ball 12 while Fatima remained unbeaten with a 14-ball 20, hitting two boundaries.

Kathryn Bryce was the pick of the bowlers for Scotland, picking up three wickets, followed by Olivia Bell and Abtaha Maqsood taking two each. Rachel Slater and Fraser shared two wickets between them.

Set to chase 133, Scotland knocked the winning runs for the loss of just two wickets and 12 balls to spare, courtesy of a strong provided by their openers Saskia Horley and Sarah Bryce.

The opening pair put Scotland upfront with a 74-run stand, which spanned until the 12th over.

Spinner Nashra Sandhu provided Pakistan with a much-needed breakthrough when she got rid of Horley, who scored 48 off 42 with the help of six boundaries.

Skipper Kathryn (18) then joined Sarah in the middle and had put Scotland in touching distance but got run out in the 18th over when her side needed just one run.

Sarah top-scored for Scotland with an unbeaten 60 which came from 52 deliveries and featured three fours and two sixes.

For Pakistan, only Nashra Sandhu could pick up a wicket.

Meanwhile, in another ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up fixture, Sri Lanka outclassed Bangladesh by 33 runs.

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