GUYANA: Jess Watkin and Amelia Kerr claimed three wickets apiece as New Zealand scored a comprehensive 54-run win over Pakistan in the ICC Women’s World T20 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, India booked their place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2010 on Thursday as Mithali Raj scored her second straight half-century in a 52-run thrashing of Ireland.

For Pakistan, the offspin-legspin dichotomy proved too much to handle on a conducive track and despite a rapid start to a chase of 145, the greenshirts lost all 10 wickets in the space of 59 runs and were bowled with two full overs to spare.

The match was reduced to a footnote even before a ball was bowled with India’s win over Ireland in the early encounter sealing all qualification combinatorics. This Group B game, therefore, eventually turned into an inconsequential third-place shootout and the lifting off the pressure lid paved the way for some exciting cricket.

India face Australia on Saturday to decide who finish top of Group ‘B’, before playing the semi-finals on Nov 22.

Brief scores: New Zealand 144/6 in 20 overs (Suzie Bates 35, Sophie Devine 32; Aliya Riaz 2-29) beat Pakistan 90 in 18 overs (Javeria Khan 36; Jess Watkin 3-9, Amelia Kerr 3-21) by 54 runs.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018