Women’s Asia Cup: Sri Lanka elect to bowl against Pakistan in semifinal

Sri Lanka Women won the toss and elected to field against Pakistan in the second semifinal of the Women’s Asia Cup in Dubai. Mithali Ayodhya and Hasini Perera returned to the Sri Lankan XI for the knockout clash

Dubai: Sri Lanka Women won the toss and elected to field against Pakistan Women in the second semifinal of the Women’s Asia Cup at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Sri Lanka, which recently beat Pakistan in both the ODI and T20I series, entered the contest as favourites after remaining unbeaten in the tournament. However, past results were unlikely to count for much once the game began, with the team that handled the pressure better likely to prevail.

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Sri Lanka Women captain Chamari Athapaththu said, “We have decided to bowl first. I am confident of my bowling unit, and the surface is a little bit good for the bowlers. The powerplay is very important for both teams in these conditions. We know about their skills. We have made our plans for it. We need to execute those plans. On the particular day, whichever team plays well will win. We need to execute our plans as a batting unit. I know we struggled a bit in the previous game. But if we play our best cricket, we will win. We need to play our best cricket today. Every game brings pressure. We always face them in Asia Cup semifinals. So yeah, good game. Let’s see.”

Pakistan Women captain Fatima Sana said, “Yeah, definitely. We had a great experience batting in the last three games, so we’ll try to stay calm, manage the nerves, and play accordingly. Yeah, the whole team has been giving the same message to each other. We know that strike rotation is important, so we’ll try to rotate the strike more between five and seven overs. Yeah, definitely, we have a matchup for them. We know how they play, so we’ll try to bowl accordingly. I think definitely 130-plus would be a good total here, so we’ll try to get there. We are going with the same team.”

Playing XIs:

Pakistan Women: Muneeba Ali (wk), Shawaal Zulfiqar, Gull Feroza, Ayesha Zafar, Sadaf Shamas, Fatima Sana (c), Eyman Fatima, Umm-e-Hani, Tuba Hassan, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal

Sri Lanka Women: Imesha Dulani, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Sanjana Kavindi, Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama (vc), Hasini Perera, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Kaushani Nuthyangana (wk), Sugandika Kumari, Chamudi Praboda, Mithali Ayodhya