The Women in Green will play arch-rivals India in their next CWC 2025 match on October 5
\nColombo
\nPakistan captain Fatima Sana admitted her side couldn\u2019t nail the high pressure moments in their opening CWC25 game. And the stakes get even bigger on Sunday.
\nPakistan fell victim to a high powered Bangladesh side, as the Tigers claimed an impressive victory to start their ICC Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup campaign on a high.
\nPakistan collapsed to 129 all out in 38.3 overs after captain Fatima Sana chose to bat, with Marufa Akter striking twice in the opening over. Shorna Akter starred with 3 for 5, while Marufa and Nahida Akter picked up two wickets each.
\nIn reply, Rubya Haider anchored the chase with an unbeaten 54, adding 62 with skipper Nigar Sultana (23). Sobhana Mostary\u2019s brisk 24 ensured Bangladesh crossed the target in just 31.1 overs with 113 balls to spare.
\nThe win gave Bangladesh their first points, while Pakistan were left searching for answers after a poor start.
\nIt\u2019s back to the drawing board now for a Pakistan team that has to quickly put defeat behind them and set their sights on a huge clash with India this Sunday.
\nCaptain Fatima Sana has confirmed her side will extract learnings from the pivotal moments in their first-up loss.
\n\u201cDefinitely,\u201d she said to media post-game.
\n\u201cAll the batters will sit together with our coach and make better plans. Obviously the way we got out today \u2013 on the first ball, second ball \u2013 we\u2019ll spend more time discussing this. We\u2019ll try to play the cricket we\u2019ve been playing in the past. There are many girls who are playing such high-pressure matches for the first time, so we are facing some of those issues too, but we are trying our best to give our level best in the matches ahead.\u201d
\nBangladesh\u2019s Marufa Akter earned Player of the Match honours for her devastating early bowling spell that put Pakistan\u2019s batting lineup under immediate stress. But Sana believes it was more a case of their own wrongdoing in those moments.
\n\u201cNothing was happening on the pitch in those early wickets \u2013 that was purely our batters\u2019 mistakes, and hopefully they will minimise those mistakes,\u201d she continued.
\n\u201cI think the pitch does support the fast bowlers, so Marufa got some help and, as you saw, every pacer got help from the pitch. That was the main thing. Hopefully we\u2019ll execute our plans better in the next matches.\u201d
\nMarufa was still pinching herself post-game, having spent so much time before the World Cup visualising how she can impact games for Bangladesh.
\n\u201cI\u2019m so excited in this World Cup because this World Cup is my life in first time,\u201d said the 20-year-old.
\n\u201cAnd two months ago, I always thinking, when I\u2019m sleeping, always I\u2019m thinking, first match, I do better. Always, and I\u2019m the match-winner.\u201d
\nBangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty showered Marufa with praise post-game.
\n\u201cMarufa is very young and mature,\u201d Sultana Joty said.
\n\u201cShe knows her role very well, and is very confident. How she delivered was incredible.
\n\u201cWe wanted to start with a win. It gives a momentum we can take into the rest of the tournament.\u201d
\nCautious about handshake with India
\nPakistan women\u2019s team will cautiously monitor the situation as they expect India to repeat the \u2018no handshake\u201d policy in their highly anticipated match in Colombo on October 5, it was reported earlier.
\nIndia men\u2019s team did not shake hands with Pakistan counterparts in all three matches of the Asia Cup and then refused to take the trophy from Asian Cricket Council President Mohsin Naqvi, also the interior minister of Pakistan.
\nOn the other hand, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not been making any effort to show grace.
\nA BCCI official had reportedly said that there is \u201cno assurance\u201d that India and Pakistan players will shake hands when the two sides meet during the Women\u2019s World Cup on Sunday, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Women in Green will play arch-rivals India in their next CWC 2025 match on October 5 Colombo Pakistan captain Fatima Sana admitted her side couldn\u2019t nail the high pressure moments in their opening CWC25 game. And the stakes get even bigger on Sunday. Pakistan fell victim to a high powered Bangladesh side, as the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87717,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87703\/revisions\/87717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}