Guangzhou, Oct 31: Led by Harmanpreet Kaur, India Women beat Pakistan Women by 18 runs to win the Asian Cricket Council Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup 2012.
Defending 81 runs at the Guanggong International Cricket Stadium, and playing without their bowling spearhead, Jhulan Goswami, India wrapped up the Pakistan innings for 63. Pakistan opener Qanita Jalil was the first to be sent back by Shubhlakshmi Sharma for two. Bismah Maroof and captain Sana Mir coming in at No.3 added 27 runs for the second wicket, until N Niranjana struck to break the partnership. From there on it was downhill for Pakistan as they failed to build partnerships. The Indian bowlers kept the batsmen on a tight leash and claimed wickets at regular intervals to bowl out Pakistan with five balls to spare.
Archana Das and Niranjana picked two wickets each while S Sharma, Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil and Reema Malhotra claimed a scalp each.
Earlier, leading the team in absence of Mithali Raj, Kaur won the toss and opted to bat first. Although they lost both the openers early on and were two-down with just four runs on the board, Poonam Raut (25) and Kaur (20) stitched together a 32-run partnership to help India post 81 runs on the board. The partnership ended with Maroof dismissing Raut in the ninth over. Mariam Hasan soon followed up with the wicket of Amita Sharma, and 18 runs later Mir removed Kaur. The Pakistan captain claimed three more to help wrap up the tail and finish with a four-for.
Brief scores: India 81 all out in 20 overs (P Raut 25, H Kaur 20, S Mir 4/13, M Hasan 2/8) beat Pakistan 63 all out in 19.1 overs (B Maroof 18, A Das 2/12, N Niranjana 2/15) by 18 runs
Player of the Match: Poonam Raut who top-scored with 25 runs
