The outburst of emotions displayed by Pakistan all rounder Aliya Riaz was understandable when India’s Asha Sobhana dropped an easy catch during their Women’s T20 World Cup match in Dubai on Sunday. This happened after the powerplay when Muneeba Ali attempted to play a ramp shot to Arundhati Reddy. However, she mistimed her shot and popped the ball to Asha, who was stationed at short fine leg. It was a straightforward catch, but Asha dropped it.
As Asha dropped the catch, the camera soon shifted its focus towards Aliya, who at that time was in the dressing room and was observed covering her face possibly so that no one would see her laughing.
Nonetheless, the dropped catch did not cost India much as Shreyanka Patil took out Muneeba a couple of overs later.
Arundhati spearheaded the Indian bowling attack in the first inings as she was the most economical bowler with three wickets and giving 19 runs in her four-over spell at an economy rate of 4.80.
In the post-match conference, Arundhati spoke highly of Renuka Singh and remarked that she bowled exceptionally well. The Indian bowler further claimed that she has toiled a great deal for her T20 bowling.
“I was given the new ball and I had to get ready for the powerplay. It was an effective powerplay, Renuka also bowled quite well. I have focused quite fiercely on my T20 bowling regardless of what level of the game it is at. I intend to be more strenuous from now on. It was a day game and it was a very hot day, though we are accustomed to such weather. I just wanted to instruct hit the stumps more, and deploy my variations and slow ones. That has been working for me,” Arundhati explained after the match
In the course of the innings, Shefali Verma (32 runs off 35 balls, 3 fours) and Harmanpreet Kaur (29 runs off 24 balls) anchored the innings as India prevailed over Pakistan by a huge margin of six-wickets.