ON a balmy February night at Cape Town two years ago, Ireland’s Leah Paul stood at her bowling mark in the 19th over of the innings; her side having had a tough day in the field — courtesy of the batter waiting for her at the other end. Pakistan’s Muneeba Ali shuffles in the crease and moves outside the leg stump. Paul follows, but the left-handed batter caresses the ball to the boundary from in between the legs of the cover fielder to thundering applause from the dressing room. With that boundary, Muneeba became the first woman from Pakistan to score a T20I hundred and the sixth in international cricket to get a ton at the World Cup.

Now, the bespectacled 28-year-old opener is looking to make similar impact at the Women’s ODI World Cup. Muneeba featured in just two matches of the last edition of the tournament back in 2022. She played just two matches in New Zealand but was part of the team that beat the West Indies for their solitary victory of the global showpiece. That win snapped the team’s winless streak at the World Cup since 2009.

“I enjoyed it a lot,” Muneeba told Dawn in an interview inside the dimly-lit break room of the media centre at the National Stadium ahead of the team’s T20 series in Ireland last month. “I enjoyed batting there — it is very exciting to play in the World Cup and I really got immersed in the whole experience.”

Muneeba heads into next month’s World Cup in good form. She made 76 in the opening One-day International against South Africa last week and then scored 44 in the third and final game of the series — the only game won by her side. Apart from the red-hot Sidra Amin, she is the only batter in the squad to have scored a century in ODIs.

“We are looking to improve our team’s average score and the head-coach focuses on our individual players plans,” she said of the side’s preparations for the World Cup, where all of Pakistan’s fixtures will be staged in Colombo due to the recent agreement reached at the International Cricket Council which ensures both Pakistan and India will play at neutral venues in tournaments hosted by either country. “We have identified where we are lacking and are confident about our individual plans with clarity regarding our specific roles.”

All of Muneeba’s international centuries so far have come against Ireland. Months after the last World Cup, she got her only One-day International century against the Irish in Lahore. Her second T20 ton came against Ireland in Dublin last month.

“I have developed a lot of scoring areas [since my first century],” she said. “There are still a lot of improvements to be made — as long as you play — you have to improve your skills and develop more shots,” the left-hander said. “My focus is to improve my skills so that I can meet the demands of the team.”

Muneeba grew up playing tape-ball cricket as well as badminton with her cousins and friends on the streets in Karachi’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal. But then came the inspiration to take up cricket professionally: Pakistan’s women’s cricket team winning gold at the 2010 Asian Games in China. Still, she couldn’t have made it this far without the active support from her family.

“I got to know for the first time that there is a women’s cricket team and they play for Pakistan — I told my mother after that win that I wanted to get involved in cricket,” she said, in her typical candid manner. “She got me a kit bag and admitted me to the Asghar Ali Shah cricket academy — my cricketing journey started from there.”

However, despite the strides Pakistan has made in women’s cricket, things are not easy for the players.

“Obviously, a reasonable pay is the financial demand of everyone looking at the inflation in our country,” said Muneeba. “You need a lot of things to play cricket and they’re expensive. If you are doing individual coaching, then there are other things. Then there is travelling [costs as well]. I think it is essential to provide support to girls who can play well by identifying and securing them financially.”

To ensure that, Muneeba believes that a women’s franchise league, on similar lines to the Pakistan Super League, is launched. “We have been saying this for a long time,” she said, as skipper Fatima Sana walked into the room and joked about Muneeba’s frank manner of giving interviews.

“It’s been two years since the exhibition matches for two years — and it was said then that the women’s PSL will start. But we haven’t heard anything yet. We are hopeful that it will happen as soon as possible, as we need to grow according to the standards of world cricket.”

Those are the odds the national team, Muneeba included, will be fighting against when they begin their World Cup campaign against Bangladesh on Sept 2.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025