MOUNT MAUNGANUI: Pooja Vastrakar made a career-best 69 in a record 112-run seventh-wicket partnership with Sneh Rana which lifted India to a 107-run win over Pakistan, maintaining their perfect record against the neighbours in the Women’s World Cup on Sunday.

India had prevailed in all 10 previous one-day matches between the two, but Bismah Maroof’s team threatened to pull off an upset when they reduced Mithali Raj’s side to 114-6 in the 34th over.

Opener Smriti Mandhana made 52 but it was counter-attacking knocks from lower-order batters Pooja and Sneh, who made unbeaten 53, that helped India to a decent total of 244-7.

Indian seamers kept it tight upfront and spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad (4-31) wrecked the middle order as the first clash between the Asian rivals since India’s victory in the 2017 World Cup ended with Pakistan bundled out for 137 with seven overs remaining in their innings.

India’s teenaged wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh effected five dismissals.

“Relieved to have won the first game but there are a lot of things we have to work on,” Mithali said of India’s patchy batting. “When you lose wickets like that, it puts pressure. The partnership bet­ween Pooja and Sneh got us back. It’s important the top order scores runs, we’ll want to address that.”

Counterpart Bismah said Pakistan could not capitalise on the strong start and let India off the hook.

“We gave away easy runs to them, we were sloppy on the field, we didn’t put them under pressure,” she said.“Our batting has to improve, our shot selection wasn’t good, we’ll work on it ahead of the next game.”

Pakistan bowled well early in the India innings, checking the scoring through the use of spin. India lost opener Shafali Verma in only the third over but a half century from Smitri allowed them to recover to 96-1 in the 22nd over when she fell.

India then lost five wickets for 18 runs between the 23rd and 34th overs as Pakistan appeared to grab the upper hand.

But Pooja and Sneh rescued the innings. Pooja’s entire innings came from 57 deliveries before she was bowled by Fatima Sana at the start of the final over.

“I’m very happy to win my first Player of the Match trophy and in a World Cup game,” she said. “The focus was to get the team towards 200 and I planned my batting with that in mind. I love batting in pressure situations. In domestic cricket, coaches always send me out to bat when the team is under pressure.”

Pooja found the perfect partner in Sneh who also scored at a high rate, reaching her maiden ODI half century from 45 balls with four boundaries.

India were 160-6 in the 40th over and added 84 runs in the last 10 overs to put a score on the board which required Pakistan to reach their highest World Cup total to win.

While the required run rate was under five an over, Pakistan fell off the pace from the start and after seven overs had only eight runs on the board.

At the halfway stage, they were 78 for five, compared to India’s 100 for three, and struggling to cope with the spin of Rajeshwari and the superb glovework of 18-year-old Richa, whose hand in five dismissals included four catches and a stumping.

India’s win took them to the top of the points table on run-rate after the first full matches. South Africa, Australia and the West Indies also have two points.

Brief scores:

INDIA 244-7 in 50 overs (P. Vastrakar 67, S. Rana 53 not out; S. Mandhana 52; Nashra Sandhu 2-36, Nida Dar 2-45); PAKISTAN 137 all out in 43 overs (Sidra Ameen 30; R. Gayakwad 4-31, J. Goswami 2-26, S, Rana 2-27).

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2022