ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan women’s cricket team on Saturday completed a 3-0 whitewash of the Sri Lankan women’s team as skipper Bismah Maroof held her nerves to steer Pakistan out of the woods to victory.
The third ODI between the two teams took place at the Southend Club Cricket Stadium in Karachi. Pakistan were already 2-0 up in the series, winning their first two matches with considerable ease against the visitors.
“The calm and composed @maroof_bismah gets Pakistan home on the final ball of the match!” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tweeted on Saturday.
The green shirts bowled economically to keep Sri Lankan batters at bay, with the visitors finishing at 107/8 off their 20 overs.
Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu top-scored with 37 runs off 38 balls. Only Hasini Perera made another valuable contribution to the team with 24 off 30 balls. The rest of the Sri Lankan batters failed to make their mark against Pakistan.
Pakistani bowlers Nida Dar, Kainat Imtiaz and Tuba Hassan all took one wicket each while four Sri Lankan batters were run-out by the Pakistanis.
In response, Pakistan wobbled earlier on in their innings when Iram Javed was bowled out by Sugandika Kumari for only 10 runs off 12 balls.
Omaima Sohail, Aliya Riaz and Ayesha Naseem contributed with 4, 17 and 10 respectively before they were dismissed by Oshadi Ranasinghe. Muneeba Ali scored an impressive 25 runs off 33 balls before she was also headed back to the pavilion.
After star all-rounder Nida Dar was trapped leg before wicket (lbw) by Kavisha Dilhari, Pakistan were in serious trouble at 91/6. It was then that skipper Maroof stepped onto the crease, held her nerve to make a valuable 15 off 15 to steer Pakistan to a win. The match went down to the last ball.
