CAPE TOWN: Pakistan left-hander Muneeba Ali hit the first century of the Women\u2019s T20 World Cup when she made 102 against Ireland at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday, setting up a 70-run win for her team.
\nThe bespectacled left-handed opening batter and wicketkeeper said encouragement from veteran Nida Dar during a century partnership helped her reach the milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always had the message for me to keep going and score big,\u201d said Muneeba.<\/p>\n
Pakistan made 165 for five after they were sent into bat.<\/p>\n
Ireland was bowled out for 95, with left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu claiming career-best figures of four for 18.<\/p>\n
The margin of the win provided a big boost to Pakistan\u2019s net run rate and lifted their hopes of reaching the semi-finals despite losing to India in their opening match on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The slightly-built Muneeba had not previously scored a half-century in 44 T20 internationals although she made a one-day international hundred against the same opponents in Lahore last November.<\/p>\n
Muneeba and Dar (33) shared a third-wicket partnership of 101. Muneeba faced 68 balls and hit 14 fours.<\/p>\n
Ireland beat Pakistan 2-1 in a T20 series in Pakistan in November but was outplayed in a match between two sides who lost their opening World Cup matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are disappointed with our performance,\u201d said Ireland captain Laura Delany. \u201cAt the start, we gave them too much width and it was difficult to pull it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof praised what she described as a \u201cclinical\u201d performance. \u201cWe have taken ten wickets, so that\u2019s pleasing. But I still think we can get better in the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s remaining matches are against West Indies in Paarl on Sunday and England at Newlands on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Muneeba\u2019s century was the first by any Pakistani player in a T20 women\u2019s international.<\/p>\n
Ireland lost openers Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis inside the first five overs. Orla Prendergast made a spirited 31 off 21 balls and Eimear Richardson hit powerfully to make 28 off 17 deliveries. But Ireland never threatened to get near the Pakistan total.<\/p>\n
Sandhu dismissed both the leading scorers and was the main destroyer of the Ireland batting. Pakistan had an injury scare when big-hitting batter Ayesha Naseem suffered what appeared to be a hamstring strain and had to leave the field after chasing a ball to the boundary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAPE TOWN: Pakistan left-hander Muneeba Ali hit the first century of the Women\u2019s T20 World Cup when she made 102 against Ireland at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday, setting up a 70-run win for her team. The bespectacled left-handed opening batter and wicketkeeper said encouragement from veteran Nida Dar during a century partnership helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113476,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113474\/revisions\/113476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}