ICC Women's World Cup 2017, New Zealand vs Pakistan: 5 Talking Points
In what turned out to be another miserable outing for Pakistan, New Zealand defeated them handsomely by 8 wickets in a league stage match of the Women’s World Cup. After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Sana Mir’s side lost all of their wickets after adding 144 runs.
New Zealand, on the other hand, made no fuss of the target and completed the chase in 15 overs, with Sophie Devine being the highest scorer. Hannah Rowe, making her World Cup debut, was named the player of the match as she picked three wickets in her nine overs and destroyed Pakistan line-up.
Here we discuss five defining moments of the match.
#1 Pakistan fail to capitalise on a decent start again
On what looked like a good batting wicket, Women in Green started well with the help of openers Ayesha Zafar and Nahida Khan. After weathering the storm for a couple of overs, both the batswomen launched themselves on the NZ bowling attack.
They quickly scored 30 runs by the end of seventh over and looked set to provide a base strong enough for the Pakistan middle order to propel the score from. However, Zafar, after adding 17 runs to the board, fell to Leigh Kasperek in the eighth over.
The first wicket partnership of 35 runs was the joint highest in the Pakistani innings.