Women's T20 World Cup 2023

Pakistan Women’s cricket team skipper talks about lack of opportunities in global T20 Leagues for Pakistan players

India defeated Pakistan in their first match of the Women’s 20-20 World Cup by 7 wickets on Sunday, February 12 in Newlands, Cape Town. Pakistan opted to bat first after winning the toss. They scored 149 runs for 4 wickets in 20 overs.

In response, India won the match as they chased the target with one over remaining. This is the second biggest successful run chase in the history of the Women’s 20-20 World Cup.

Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof, who was also the highest run-scorer in the match, expressed her disappointment as she believes that Pakistan women cricketers do not get enough opportunities to play in T20 Leagues. She said that they will love to play in the overseas leagues if they get opportunities.

“We as Pakistan, you know don’t get many opportunities to play in the leagues that’s very unfortunate. Of course, we are not liking that and definitely we will love to play every opportunity we get in the leagues but yeah that’s what it is and we can’t control that,” Bismah Maroof said in the post-match presentation.

We know that India have a very deep batting: Bismah Maroof

Maroof also talked about what went wrong from their side during the match. She praised India’s batting depth and said that they just needed to bowl in the right areas but that didn’t happen. She feels that they leaked too many runs in the last five overs and couldn’t keep the batters quiet due to this they lost the match.

“Yeah, we know that will be close because we know that India have a very deep batting. So it was just the ball in the right areas and I think we are on the wrong side today (Sunday) but yeah learning from this we will take that forward in the next game and improve,” she said.

“I think in the last five to six overs we gave away too many runs and we didn’t keep them quiet. I think we gave away boundaries at the wrong time so I think that may be the turning point for us.”