India crush Pakistan by 7 wickets after spin attack bundles them out …

In a stunning performance, India triumphed over Pakistan by seven wickets during their Group A encounter. Pakistan struggled significantly, managing a mere 55 runs, marking their lowest T20I score. India's spinners dominated, with Shree Charani leading the charge by taking three wickets. Shafali Verma made history by surpassing 3,000 T20I runs. With this victory, India completed the group stage undefeated and confidently secured a semi-final berth.

Dubai [UAE], September 6 (ANI): Following her side’s win over Pakistan in the women’s Asia Cup, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur expressed happiness at her side’s win and gratitude for becoming the first cricketer to have led a country in 150 T20Is, saying that she did not expect to come that far.

Harmanpreet celebrated her landmark 150th T20I match as a captain by hitting the winning runs and absolutely demolishing Pakistan with the ball in her side’s final league stage match against Pakistan at Dubai on Saturday. With this win, India goes into the knockouts with winning momentum. sport-newz.biz

Speaking after the match, Harmanpreet said, “Very important game for us, and really happy with the way the entire team performed today, because we talk about being ruthless, and I am really happy with the way we performed."

She hailed the bowlers for their outstanding performances and for sticking to their strengths, plans and proper reading of the pitch.

“I think that is the key, understanding the pitch and then executing your plans accordingly," she added.

On her team losing early wickets during a chase of 56 runs, she said, “I think it is part of the game. They also bowled a few good balls, and I think the important thing was just being there, just keep batting and finish the game as soon as possible," she added.

On the unbeaten run to the semis and completing 150 T20I matches as a captain, she said, “It is very important to keep our standards high. We know what this team brings when we go to the field, and I think I am really happy (with the way everybody is coming up and showing up good performances, and now, in another two games, hopefully we will keep playing our best cricket. [On leading the side for the 150th T20I] I am grateful. I never thought I would come that far, but to all the people behind me who have been supporting me, I am really grateful, and hopefully I will keep getting the support, because I think without support I’m nothing. And yeah, I am grateful, and the entire team and support staff, they have been outstanding."

Shree Charani, who unleashed a brutal spin web with a four-over spell of 3/7 to become the ‘Player of the Match’ expressed her happiness at being able to contribute to the win.

“Great feeling to contribute to the team. Just wanted to bowl to my strength and the field. I just try to give more revs on the ball, and that helps. I think it is normal; like every day, it will be special, but I need to do more, contribute more for my country. I want to keep going with my good work," she said.

Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana said that they struggled throughout the innings, despite wanting to put a big total on a “fresh wicket".

“We had a collapse in the batting and struggled throughout the whole innings. [How wise was batting first?] We know that it was a fresh wicket, and we just wanted to put up the maximum total. We know we have a good bowling side. [On her three-wicket spell] But still, we lost the match; it does not matter. We needed a win, so it does not matter. [How crucial is the next match?] We will try to play good cricket there, and in the last match we will try to win and progress to the finals," she said.

After bundling Pakistan out for just 55 with openers Muneeba Ali (13) and Shawaal Zulfiqar (14) barely crossing the double digits, India chased down the target in only 8.4 overs, with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (18) and Deepti Sharma (12) remaining unbeaten at the crease, despite losing Shafali Verma (12), Smriti Mandhana (9) and Pratika Rawal (4) for just 29 runs.

With this win, India completed a perfect group-stage campaign, securing three victories in as many matches. They defeated Thailand, Hong Kong and Pakistan to collect all six available points.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s final group-stage clash against Hong Kong will be a do-or-die encounter, with a place in the final four at stake. (ANI)

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

There is a difference between a big game and a big rivalry.

India-Pakistan is automatically a big game. The political history between the two countries ensures that. The broadcasters know it, the advertisers know it, the fans know it and, inevitably, the players know it too. Put India and Pakistan on the same cricket field and the match comes with a narrative before the first ball is bowled.

But in women’s cricket, there is an uncomfortable question that we have perhaps been avoiding for too long:

Are we actually watching a rivalry, or are we watching a rivalry being manufactured around a fixture?

Saturday’s Women’s Asia Cup match in Dubai offered the clearest possible answer.

Pakistan were bowled out for 55 in 18.1 overs, their lowest-ever total in women’s T20Is. India needed just 8.4 overs to chase the target, winning by seven wickets. Shree Charani and Prema Rawat took three wickets apiece as India’s spin attack dismantled a Pakistan batting line-up that had no answers once the opening partnership disappeared.

This was not a close contest that swung one way or the other. It was a contest in which one team looked considerably more equipped to play international cricket at this level.

And that is precisely why the constant attempt to build India-Pakistan into the defining rivalry of women’s cricket needs to be questioned.

The problem isn’t that the match is promoted. Of course it should be. India-Pakistan will always attract eyeballs. The problem is when the political significance of the fixture begins to substitute for sporting competitiveness.

In men’s cricket, there was a period when the rivalry genuinely had the cricket to sustain the mythology. Pakistan produced world-class players across generations and could beat India often enough to make the fixture unpredictable. There was history, quality and consequence.

Women’s cricket has never had that same competitive balance.

The numbers tell the story. Saturday’s victory took India’s Women’s Asia Cup record against Pakistan to 7-1. More broadly, India have dominated the recent head-to-head, including victories in the 2022 ODI World Cup, the 2023 T20 World Cup, the 2024 T20 World Cup, the 2025 ODI World Cup and the 2026 T20 World Cup.

The issue, therefore, isn’t that Pakistan lose to India. Losing to a stronger team is not a failure.

The issue is why the gap continues to exist.

And this is where the conversation has to move away from television graphics, political narratives and the phrase ‘high-voltage rivalry’ and towards the rather less glamorous business of building women’s cricket.

Pakistan has made progress. It would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest otherwise.

The Pakistan Cricket Board awarded domestic contracts to 74 women cricketers in 2023, while restoring training facilities across seven operational academies. For the 2025-26 season, 65 women were given domestic contracts, including 23 U19 and emerging players. The PCB has also expanded its women’s calendar, with national T20 and one-day competitions alongside U19 pathways.

There are genuine signs of intent.

But intent is not the same as depth.

And depth is what Pakistan need.

One of the most revealing pieces of evidence comes not from India, but from Pakistan itself. In 2022, Pakistan international Nida Dar spoke openly about the lack of training facilities and cultural barriers hampering the development of women cricketers in the country.

That should have been a starting point for a much bigger conversation.

Because international teams don’t suddenly become competitive because 15 or 20 players are given central contracts. They become competitive when there are hundreds of players underneath them, playing regularly, being coached properly, competing for places and developing from one level to the next.

Look at the difference in the ecosystems.

India’s women’s cricket has been able to draw from a vast domestic pool, a professional league environment, state associations, age-group cricket, high-performance programmes and a generation of players who have been exposed to elite cricket from a young age.

Pakistan are still trying to create some of those structures.

Even the PCB’s own announcements reveal that this is work in progress. In December 2025, the board launched a grassroots initiative with Pepsi to provide women and girls access to cricket equipment through ‘Playboards’, explicitly identifying limited access to appropriate equipment as one of the barriers to entry.

That is a useful initiative. But it also tells us something important.

If a country is still trying to solve basic access to equipment at grassroots level, it is premature to pretend that its senior women’s team can be built into a sustained equal of India simply by giving the fixture more promotional oxygen.

Pakistan’s domestic calendar has improved, but even there the scale tells its own story. The PCB’s 2025-26 women’s calendar listed a four-team National Women’s One-Day Tournament and a five-team National Women’s T20 tournament. The board has also been discussing the possibility of bringing more departments into women’s cricket to expand playing opportunities.

That is development.

But it is not yet an ecosystem comparable in depth to what India has built.

And that matters most in batting.

Pakistan have repeatedly produced individual women capable of carrying an innings — Nida Dar, Bismah Maroof, Sana Mir in her era, and more recently players such as Muneeba Ali and Fatima Sana.

But a team cannot build a world-class batting unit around finding one or two individuals every generation.

The Dubai game was another example. Pakistan began reasonably, reaching 27 without loss, before the dismissal of Muneeba Ali triggered a collapse. The next ten wickets fell for just 28 runs.

That isn’t simply a bad day.

It is a symptom.

India can have an off day and still have multiple routes to victory. There is batting depth, bowling depth, fielding depth and, increasingly, bench strength.

Pakistan too often need the game to fall perfectly for a small number of players.

That is why the current hype is ultimately unsustainable.

You can make India-Pakistan the television event of the tournament. You can put it in prime time. You can wrap it in political history. You can call it a blockbuster, a marquee clash or a high-voltage encounter.

But eventually, the cricket has to deliver the contest.

And if the cricket repeatedly doesn’t, audiences will eventually see through the packaging.

There is another reason this matters: it is actually unfair to Pakistan.

Constantly presenting Pakistan as India’s great rival raises expectations that the team, at present, cannot consistently meet. Instead of asking why Pakistan are struggling to develop their batting, domestic cricket and pathways, we keep asking why India-Pakistan doesn’t produce another classic.

That is the wrong question.

The better question is: What would Pakistan have to build for this to become a genuine rivalry?

The answer is not another marketing campaign.

It is more cricket.

More girls playing from a younger age. More quality coaches. More specialist batting coaches. Better pitches. More high-performance centres. More competitive domestic teams. More inter-city and inter-provincial cricket. More A-team cricket. More international exposure for emerging players. More professional opportunities. And, critically, a much deeper pipeline from grassroots to the national side.

To Pakistan’s credit, the PCB is moving in that direction. Its recent programmes include domestic contracts, U19 tournaments, academy access and a stated ambition to expand regional academies. It also recently signed a 25-year agreement with Abbottabad University to develop a cricket ground and training facilities that will function as a high-performance centre.

Those are building blocks.

But building blocks take time.

That is precisely why the narrative needs to change.

Pakistan women’s cricket should not be sold as India’s great rival today. It should be supported and invested in so that it can potentially become one tomorrow.

There is no shame in acknowledging the gap.

In fact, acknowledging it honestly may be the first step towards closing it.

India’s dominance should not be used to belittle Pakistan. Nor should Pakistan’s occasional individual brilliance be used to pretend that the overall gap doesn’t exist.

Both extremes do a disservice to the sport.

The best thing that can happen to Pakistan women’s cricket is for the conversation to stop being about whether they can beat India once every few years and start being about whether they can produce 50, 100, 200 high-quality female cricketers capable of competing for national selection.

That is how sustainable teams are built.

That is how rivalries are born.

And that is the uncomfortable truth behind India-Pakistan women’s cricket right now: you cannot manufacture a sporting rivalry through politics and promotion when the competitive foundation underneath it is still being built.

Saturday’s 55 all out was not merely another India victory.

It was a reminder that before Pakistan can become India’s rival, Pakistan first has to build Pakistan women’s cricket.

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