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LAHORE, Oct 15 (APP): Rain returned at the Premadasa cricket stadium, Colombo on Wednesday night to stop the play and wash away hopes of Pakistan Women cricketers to register a first-ever win against England-W when they had everything under control.
Earlier, captain Fatima Sana won the toss and elected to field first under overcast conditions. In a superb bowling display, Pakistan bowlers led by captain Fatima Sana reduced England – W to 73-7 in 23.1 overs on a seamer-friendly pitch when rain stopped the play.
Diana Baig provided the perfect start by dismissing Tammy Beaumont in the second over, while Fatima struck twice in quick succession to remove wicketkeeper-batter Amy Jones and England captain Natalie Sciver-Brunt.
Fatima continued her outstanding spell, accounting for Heather Knight (18, 17b, 4x4s) to leave England 39 for four in 6.4 overs. Pakistani seamers made life difficult for table-toppers England with their in-swingers and off-cutters.
Left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal then dismissed Emma Lamb and Sophie Dunkley to put England under immense pressure at 57 for six in 11.3 overs.
Rameen Shamim added to the tally by removing Alice Capsey (16, 43b, 2x4s) as England slipped to 78 for seven in 23.1 overs. A rain interruption midway through the innings reduced the contest to 31 overs per side. After play resumed, England recovered slightly through a 47-run eighth-wicket partnership between Charlie Dean and Emily Arlott to post 133 for nine. Under the DLS method, Pakistan were set a revised target of 113 runs from 31 overs.
For Pakistan, Fatima bagged four wickets for 27 runs, while Sadia took two wickets for 16 runs.
In post-match talk the English captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was honest in admitting Pakistan’s superiority in all departments. “Pakistan bowlers brilliantly, made it hard for us to get into the game at all. The rain break came and Charlie and Em batted really well to give us a chance. But we weren’t very good today and we’ll hold our hands up. It was seaming a lot, we needed plans to nullify that threat bowlers and Ibws stopped us getting a partnership.”
on preparations, she tacitly acknowledged, ‘Everyone is practicing really well, going through their processes, but taking it from the nets to the wicket is different. We’re off to Indore now, so will assess the conditions and work out what’s best for our team.”
Pakistan captain Fatima Sana said “We could beat English Women tonight but the weather was not in our favour. We know this pitch is good for pacers. I saw lots of performances before on this track. I tried to bowl on a good length, tried for the stumps. But it would have been good if we’d won the match. The conditions suited our batters, it was wet and helped them.”
On the plans for the next matches, she said “In last couple of matches we did well in bowling and need to improve our batting. We will sit and chat together in their fourth ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 fixture at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday evening.”
Pakistan had it under control and deserved to win against England Women in their fourth match of ICC Women World Cup 2025 but persistent rain forced a no-result.
Pakistan will now take on New Zealand at the same venue on Saturday, 18 October.
Scorecard:
No result
England 133-9, 31 overs (Charlie Dean 33; Fatima Sana 4-27, Sadia Iqbal 2-16)
Pakistan 34-0, 6.4 overs (Omaima Sohail 19 not out)