Pakistan women beat Ireland by 38 runs in a low-scoring thriller to win the opening One-Day International (ODI) encounter of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 Qualifiers on Wednesday.

On a hot day in Lahore, Pakistan’s Diana Baig and Nashra Sandhu starred with the ball, picking up four and three wickets each to bowl the Irish women’s team out for 179.

Seamer Diana got the prized scalp of opener Sarah Forbes in her first spell and then came back to clean up the tail by getting the wickets of Christina Coulter Reilly, Louise Little and Arlene Kelly.

She was adjudicated player of the match for her figures of 4-35 off 9 overs.

Speaking at the post-match ceremony, she said, “As a bowling unit, we have this confidence that if we stick to our plans and take the match deep as the run-rate went up, we could always induce panic.”

Diana added that the side knew that this was just the start and that they won’t be getting over-confident going into the rest of the games.

Left-arm spinner Nashra got the wickets of Irish captain Gaby Lewis, Amy Hunter and Laura Delany, not letting the Irish top-order push on towards the target after being 95-1 at one stage.

Ireland’s final wicket fell to a run-out, with skipper Fatima Sana lobbing the ball to Nashra at the stumps to end the Ireland innings by running out Cara Murray.

None of the Irish batters were able to cross the 50 mark, with captain Lewis and batter Hunter scoring 44 each.

Pakistan skipper Fatima, speaking after the match, said, “Our whole team played good cricket, we wanted a good start and we got it.”

She added that at the start, they were aiming for a 240+ score, but after getting a look at the pitch, their score seemed to be enough.

“We wanted our senior players to step up, and we always wanted our pacers to step up, which Diana did,” Fatima added.

Earlier, the hosts were bowled out in the penultimate over of the innings and could not capitalise on a decent start, being just three down for 153 at one stage in the match.

Pakistan’s Aliya Riaz top-scored for her side, hitting 52 of just 58 deliveries in an innings where she hit four boundaries and a six.

Sidra Amin was the other half-centurion for Pakistan, getting her 50 of 110 balls and scoring three boundaries in the process.

For Ireland, Jane Maguire was the pick of the bowlers, getting three wickets while giving away just 33 runs in her quota of 10 overs. Her scalps included Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali and wicketkeeper Sidra Nawaz.

Gull made her ODI debut in this match, having already featured in T20 internationals for Pakistan.

Pakistan are at the top of the table after their win with a net run rate of 0.76 in the six-team ICC event, which includes Bangladesh, Ireland, Scotland, Thailand and West Indies alongside hosts Pakistan. It features a single-league round-robin format with the matches taking place at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and LCCA ground from April 9 to 19.

The tournament will decide the two qualifiers for the 2025 Women’s World Cup, to be held later this year in India.

Having won both their warm-ups against Thailand and West Indies, Pakistan — who are hosting an ICC women event for the first time — look in good shape to earn a place in the top two positions of the qualifying event to reach the main event of the World Cup.

Lahore’s temperature, which touched 39 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, is not a good sign for the six participating teams, who may find it significantly tough to give their best in the scorching heat.

Pakistan, who are competing in the Qualifier for the fourth time, qualified for the World Cup on all three occasions. They will be playing Scotland next at the LCCA ground on Friday.