Jubilation is in the air as our women cricketers are performing extremely well in the ongoing Women’s Asia Cup, making the nation proud. On Tuesday, they outclassed Sri Lanka in the 21st match of the Women's Asia Cup at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Bangladesh on Tuesday afternoon.

Off-spinner Omaima Sohail dominated the field and it was mainly due to her maiden five-wicket haul which led the Green Shirts to ultimate success.  

Overall, it was Pak Eve's fifth victory out of six encounters in this mega regional tournament being played in Bangladesh. This latest victory of the event is also significant in more than one way because with this victory, our teams have finished second on the points table,  securing  10 points, which shows their magnificent performance so far.

They are scheduled to meet Sri Lanka in the second semi-final encounter tomorrow and it is hoped they will continue with their good show. Though Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first, but they could not score a formidable score as they were countered by right-arm off-spinner  Omaima Sohail, who started attacking bowling from the first ball and took important opening wicket of Nilakshi de Silva's in the first over, putting pressure on the Lanka team. Omaima was at her best and in her next two overs, she got four more wickets to create a dent in Lankan batting line. She was well assisted by spin twin Nida and Tuba who took  three wickets, sending the Lankan team back to the pavilion for a mere 112 runs in the 19th over. 

Only the Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu was able to become top-scorer with  41 runs haul off 26 bowls, with the help of nine fours. In reply, Pakistan were also faltering and were struggling at 51 for four wicket in the ninth over. However, Aliya Riaz and Nida, added valuable 45-run partnership for the fifth wicket. After Aliya was out, Ayesha Naseem joined Nida in the middle  and the duo reached the target on the penultimate ball of the 19th over.  

Ayesha who added an unbeaten 16 off five balls, including two huge sixes  in the 19th was a treat to watch as she batted beautifully. 

The social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are celebrating the Pakistan  Eves for their excellent performance at the Women's Asia Cup. Earlier, their defeat of India was celebrated in a big way. Pak Cricket fans were on cloud nine when our women team beat their Indian counterparts by 13-ru. The main highlight of the Indo-Pak match was Nida Dar brilliant performance. Till now they have lost a single match of the ongoing Asia Cup.

It was on Friday last when our women team succumbed to a four-wicket loss to Thailand. Nida first scored magnificent 56 runs and then also contributed with the willow by taking two valuable wickets including that of the India’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Nida was also part of the 76-run partnership with team captain Bismah Maroof  due to the which the team was able to score a total of 137 runs.

While Bismah played a Captain's knock,  Nida Dar also played extremely well in all departments of the game. In fact, Dar's all-round show was the best performance of this match and she was rightly named as  "superstar" by Twitteratis. Nida Dar was not only our hero in our team's victory against arch-rival India, but she also collaborated with Aliya for a 67-run partnership in match against Sri Lanka. The purpose to say is the team has been playing a quality game so far and has attracted quite a good number of fans across the world on social media, commending good bowling, batting and fielding performance by Pakistani team.

And if they played with the same zeal and spirit today, they will definitely win the tournament too. On the other hand, India has so far finished top in the standings and is scheduled to play against Thailand or Bangladesh in the second semi-final  today. Pakistan, who had beaten India after being stunned by Thailand in their previous two matches, were pulled out of trouble by Aliya after being put into bat by UAE. Though India are favorite for the title win but Pakistan team is equally poised to lift the title as our team's morale is very high after beating India in the league's match and also winning five out of total six matches played so far. Their today's semifinal encounter is of great significance and cricket analysts say that they should play attacking cricket to keep their opponents under pressure. With attacking cricket, they can win both semifinal and the final encounters, the analysts say.  

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 13 2022

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