Indian eves restricted to 169/9 by Pakistan

Indian batters had a disappointing day as they could only manage a paltry 169 for 9 against arch-rivals Pakistan in their third round robin match of the ICC Women's World Cup match here.

Electing to bat, the Indians never had any momentum in their innings once in-form Smriti Mandhana (2) was dismissed cheaply. Worse, skipper Mithali Raj (8) and her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur (10) could not also score too many runs, making it difficult for the other players to accelerate.

Opener Poonam Raut (48) consumed 72 balls while Deepti Sharma fared no better playing 63 balls for a sedate 28.

It was keeper Sushma Verma (33 off 35 balls), who used the long handle to get the team near 170-run mark.

One of the main reasons for India not being able to get past 200-run mark was because of a very slow fifth wicket partnership between Mona Meshram (6, 35 balls) and Harmanpreet (10, 23 balls). They were together for 8 overs (between 26.3 and 34.3) which yielded only 13 runs.

While Harmanpreet was finding it difficult to hit big as she is playing with a finger injury, Meshram just could not pick the singles.

This was the time when Pakistan's spinners were in operation.

Left-arm spin duo of Nashra Sandhu (4/26 in 10 overs) and Sadia Yousuf (2/30 in 10 overs) inflicted the maximum damage, taking 6 wickets for 56 runs in the 20 overs that they bowled.

The final six overs of the innings turned out to be productive for India as Sushma's attacking display fetched 41 runs during that phase.