After bowling Pakistan to a comprehensive victory over Hong Kong for a place in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup semifinal against Sri Lanka, Nashra Sandhu was confident of delivering another strong collective performance against the defending champions.
Sandhu’s stunning six-wicket spell helped Pakistan beat Hong Kong by 72 runs on Monday.
Barely 48 hours after their big defeat to India at Dubai International Stadium, Pakistan returned to the same ground to face Hong Kong with a place in the last four at stake.
Pakistan, who suffered a stunning batting collapse against India, slumping from 27 for no loss to 55 all out, put up a better performance with the bat.
Opener Shawaal Zulfiqar top-scored with 47 off 35 balls, while number 4 batter Ayesha Zafar (26) and skipper Fatima Sana (24) also chipped in with important cameos.
For Hong Kong, medium pacer Joyleen Kaur was the pick of the bowlers with impressive figures of 4-0-19-4.
In reply, Hong Kong had no answer to the Pakistani bowling unit as Sandhu (4-0-7-6) broke the back of their batting line-up with a fantastic display of left-arm spin bowling.
Sandhu, who became the first Pakistan bowler in history to claim a six-wicket haul in women’s T20 internationals, is confident of Pakistan earning a positive result against Sri Lanka in the semifinal on Friday.
Unlike Pakistan, Sri Lanka remained unbeaten in the group stage, winning their three matches against Bangladesh, Indonesia and hosts UAE.
“There’s no question that the opponent (Sri Lanka) is strong as well, but we are strong too. Whether they are unbeaten in the last World Cup or in this tournament doesn’t really matter. We will have our plans,” she said.
“We have played against good teams, so we know what we need to do. Our mindset is that we have practised for these situations and we are prepared. Nothing else really matters. Obviously, the stronger the opponent, the better our plan has to be.”
But Sri Lanka are a stronger team on paper, having finished third in their group at the 2026 T20 World Cup with impressive wins over New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland.
Pakistan, on the other hand, finished fifth in their group at the World Cup, in which their only victory came against the Netherlands.
Batting remains a major concern for Pakistan — their batters struggled at the World Cup, and the Asia Cup in Dubai still hasn’t seen them hit their top gear.
Batting remains a major concern for Pakistan — their batters struggled at the World Cup, and the Asia Cup in Dubai still hasn’t seen them hit their top gear.
Skipper Fatima admitted that Pakistan’s batting unit needed to improve to beat the talented Sri Lankan team in the semifinal.
“I think in the batting side we need more, like strike rotation in the batting, and we need more partnerships. And we will try to sit together and discuss these things,” Fatima said.
“So we just go and sit together and discuss a lot of things before the semifinal because we know that it’s a knockout match, so we will try.”
Source: Khaleej Times