Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof was disappointed with the team’s batting performance after they lost the 24th match of the ongoing ICC Women World Cup 2022 against England by nine wickets at Hagley Oval, Christchurch on Tuesday.
Pakistan was bundled out for a meager score of 105 runs after Heather Knight won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Pakistan got off to a horrid start as they lost their first wicket on the first ball after Nahida Khan was dismissed by Katherine Brunt. The Women in Green kept losing their wickets at regular intervals as they failed to achieve any kind of impetus in their innings. In fact, only three Pakistan batters could get to the double-digit mark in their batting innings.
Katherine Brunt and Sophie Eccelstone were the pick of the England bowlers as they scalped three wickets each. Maroof stated that bowling is their strength but they need to work on their batting.
She said in the post-match presentation, “We should have batted 50 overs and put up a good score on the board. Bowling is our strength, we back ourselves to put any team under pressure with the ball, that is why we like to bowl first. Our batting approach has to be changed. We need to believe in ourselves. We do have hitters.”
On the other hand, Danielle Wyatt played a whirlwind knock of 76 runs off just 68 balls to help her team chase down the target with ease. Wyatt hasn’t had the best of the tournament and it is a big positive for England that she has got back among the runs in the fag end of the competition.
Wyatt was awarded the Player of the Match and she said after the game, “Very happy to do it. Really pleased with the early finish as well. The bowlers did well. Shout to Brunt. Hopefully can get another win against Bangladesh. We saw the wicket and it looked like a green one in England. Won the toss and capitalized. It was quite a sensible innings from me. Wanted to get some time in the middle before the business end of the tournament.”
Pakistan Women will play their last match of the tournament against hosts New Zealand at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch on Saturday.
