With an unbeaten 77, Charlotte Edwards helped England progress to the semifinals of the women's World T20. England set a target of 149 for Pakistan. With the West Indies defeating India by three runs earlier in the day, Sana Mir's girls needed to win the match in 18.1 overs to make the last-four stage. In the end, though, Pakistan batswomen crumbled under pressure and lost the match by 68 runs.
England, who finished on eight points after winning all their matches, will take on Australia in the first semifinal at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday. With four points, Pak finished third behind West Indies (six points).
Brief scores:
England Women 148-5 (Charlotte Edwards 77 not out, Tammy Beaumont 37; Nida Dar 3-21) beat Pakistan Women 80 all out in 17.5 overs (Nida Dar 16; Laura Marsh 3-12).
Indian women crash out
The Indian women's team blew away a position of strength, losing to West Indies by three runs in their last league match. The defeat also meant the Indian women crashed out of the tournament and their West Indian counterparts progressed to the semifinals. Allrounder Deandra Dottin starred for the Windies with both bat and ball. She scored a quickfire 45 (off 40b; 5x4) and followed it up with a match-winning spell, picking up 3-16.
The match seemed to go India's way when Jhulan Goswami (25 off 19b) and Anuja Patil (26 off 27b) were going great guns. India, at one point, needed 22 runs off 15 balls and had six wickets in the hut. But Patil was given leg-before off Shaquana Quintyne's bowling, though replays showed the impact was outside the off-stump.
Jhulan was unfortunately run out the very next over after a mix-up with Shikha Pandey. India required 10 runs off the final over, which was bowled by Dottin. She gave away just six runs and also picked up the wickets of Ekta Bisht and Sushma Verma. India simply lacked a power-hitter in those end overs to see them home.
The start wasn't ideal either. Skipper Mithali Raj was caught behind off the first ball of the Indian innings. Veda Krishnamurthy (18 off 16b) struck a few blows, but Dottin had her caught at mid-wicket. Middle-order mainstay Harmanpreet Kaur's dismissal had India tottering at 393. She played an uncharacteristic innings and could score just 7 off 20 balls.
West Indies could put up a competitive total of 1145 mainly due to a 77-run partnership between captain Stafanie Taylor (47 off 45b) and Dottin. The rest couldn't even reach the double-digits.
