Pak Women saunter to victory against BangladeshPakistani

LAHORE, Apr 19 :Pakistan Women beat Bangladesh with ease by seven wickets as they overhauled a small target of 179 in 39.4 overs in the last match of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 Qualifiers at the LCCA Ground here on Saturday afternoon.
Pak-W maintained their unbeaten run in the competition with five wins in as many matches. Pakistan Women have already qualified for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 to be played in India between September and October later this year.
Chasing a below-par total of 178-10 by Bangladesh, Muneeba Ali and Aliya Riaz powered Pak-W to victory with 62 balls to spare. Muneeba Ali played yet another responsible knock to anchor the Pakistan innings while Aliya Riaz returned unbeaten as she hit third half-century of the event. Sidra Amin played a comparatively brisk knock as compared with her last four innings in the event as she hit 33 runs off 52 runs including five boundaries.
Opener Muneeba Ali 66 (93) was involved in two partnerships of 80 and 74 runs with Sidra Amin 33 (52) and Aliya Riaz 56 not out respectively and adjudged player of the match for her match winning knock.
The Bangladesh bowlers could not make inroads into the Pakistan batting line-up and struggled against the batters who looked in command except for the opener Shawaal Zulfiqar who failed for the second time in as many matches.
Marufa Akter, Nahida Akter and Rabeya Khan were the only successful bowlers for Bangladesh and shared one wicket each for 27, 36 and 25 runs. Fahima Khatun, Ritu Moni and Jannatul Ferdus remained wicketless for Bangladesh.
Earlier, Bangladesh Women won the toss and elected to bat first to put pressure on Pakistan in the second innings chase. Bangladesh Women could not find the desired results as their batters failed to post a big total on the board. Ritu Moni was the highest scorer for Bangladesh with 48 (76) while Sharmin Akhter 24 (47), Nahida Akter 19 (51) and Dilara Akter 13 (14) contributed to the low-scoring total. Fahima Khatun returned unbeaten with 44 runs off 53 balls.
Captain Fatima Sana Khan gabbed the prized wickets of in-form batters Fargana Hoque 0 (7) and captain Nigar Sultana 1 (6) as she conceded 45 runs in her quota of 10 overs. Sadia Iqbal was the most successful bowler for Pak-W as she claimed three wickets for 28 runs, Rameen Shamim bowled a miserly spell and conceded 25 runs for one wicket. Nashra Sandhu also snared one wicket for 31 runs. Diana Baig bagged two wickets for 45 runs.