India chased down the target of 56 runs in just 8.4 overs on Saturday to secure a comprehensive seven-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their Women’s Asia Cup 2026 match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur top-scored for India in her 150th match as captain and sealed the victory by hitting a six off the fourth ball of the eighth over of the chase.
Indian women would have expected a bit of practice before their semi-finals but such was the plight of Pakistani batters that once again it became a ‘No Contest’.
In the history of T20 Asia Cup, India have won seven games to Pakistan’s one.
Sree Charani and Prema Rawat picked up three wickets each, while Deepti Sharma accounted for two dismissals to help India bowl
Pakistan out for just 55 runs in 18.1 overs.
Pakistan captain Fatima Sana opted to bat first, and her team got off to a solid start, reaching 27/0 in 4.2 overs before Shafali Verma dismissed Muneeba Ali.
After Muneeba’s dismissal, Pakistan suffered a dramatic collapse, with their next nine batters managing to add only 28 runs to the team’s total.
Charani got into the act as she extracted appreciable turn and bounce at the same time. Gull Feroza (0) tried to hit her against the turn to get caught at short third while Zulfiqar missed a sweep shot to be adjudged plumb in-front.
Ayesha Zafar (2) was strangled as she tried to break the shackles, only to lob an easy catch to Harmanpreet at mid-on.
Sadaf Shamas (3) tried to hit her way out on a difficult track against Prema, who bowled straight and hit the stumps.
Pakistan’s biggest hope, skipper Fatima Sana (0) got a classical off-break from Deepti Sharma that hit her flush on the pads and could have hit the leg-middle line.
Eyman Fatima (5) and Umm-e Hani (6) were involved in a horrible mix-up leading to the former being run-out at the non-striker’s end.
Hani also perished like many of her teammates trying a sweep without even having an iota of idea about the length of the delivery. By then the contest was over even before India came out to bat.
