Riding on the back of aggressive half-centuries from Nat Sciver-Brunt (81* off 40) and Danni Wyatt (59 off 33), England thumped Pakistan by a massive 114 runs to end the group stages of the 2023 T20 World Cup unbeaten. Defending a challenging score of 213, Katherine Sciver-Brunt (2-14) and Charlotte Dean (2-28) triggered a top and middle-order collapse to restrict the Asian side to just 99/9 from their 20 overs.
A couple of early wickets notwithstanding, England were off to a flier having opted to bat first courtesy Wyatt who took an early liking to Sadia Iqbal. The opener started with a four and six off the spinner, and then spoilt her wicket-over with back to back boundaries before raising England’s fifty with a lofted four over covers off Nida Dar to wrap up the powerplay at 55/2.
Joining hands at 33/2 halfway into the fifth over, Wyatt combined with Nat to put on 72 runs in just seven overs and set up England for a competitive score. The aggressor in that stand, Wyatt reached her fifty in just 29 balls, slog-sweeping Nashra Sandhu to deep midwicket and celebrated the milestone with a six next ball, that also brought up the 100 for England in the 11th over.
A mistimed lofted drive brought an end to her thrilling knock, and Pakistan got a brief window of opportunity when stand-in skipper Nida Dar managed to send back her counterpart, Heather Knight, cheaply as well, but they couldn’t avail it.
Nat helped England move on as death overs approached. She took on Tuba Hassan with 4, 4, 6 to kickstart the 16th over, raising her second fifty of the tournament with the first of those boundaries, in 29 balls. Dar continued to leak runs with Amy Jones (47 off 31) picking up successive fours in a 14-run 17th over while Iqbal conceded as many to Nat in the 18th that saw 19 runs being scored.
Given a reprieve first ball, albeit off a difficult chance at short fine, Jones took England to the 200-run mark with a six – pulled over deep square leg – off Sandhu as England hammered 88 runs in the last six overs to all but knock Pakistan out of the contest.
Already eliminated from the semifinals race and without their regular captain Bismah Maroof (injured), Pakistan just didn’t show up with the bat. Katherine struck with just the second ball of their chase to hand Sadaf Shams a duck while the only centurion of the tournament thus far, Muneeba Ali, edged Charlie Dean behind in the fourth over after a sedate 3 off 10 balls. Three balls later, Nat joined the party and sent back Omaima Sohail as Pakistan slipped to 15 for 3. Their powerplay yielded only 24.
The English trio was back in action a while later with Dean and Katherine picking up their respective second scalps and Nat running out Sidra Nawaz to leave Pakistan in the doldrums at 54/7 in the 13th over. The result of the game was a forgone conclusion but Hassan delayed the inevitable with some enterprising batting. She dominated the eighth-wicket stand of 37 and struck a couple of boundaries and the only six of Pakistan’s chase in her 20-ball 28. Her top-scoring effort was nowhere near enough to even pose a threat as Pakistan could muster only 99/9 in rpely.
Brief scores: England 213/5 in 20 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 81*, Danni Wyatt 59, Amy Jones 47; Fatima Sana 2-44) beat Pakistan 99/9 in 20 overs (Tuba Hassan 28; Katherine Sciver-Brunt 2-14, Charlotte Dean 2-28) by 114 runs.
