Cricket fans in Pakistan had a rough weekend. The Pakistan Women’s team faced India in the Women’s Asia Cup 2026, and things went badly wrong. India won easily by seven wickets, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Pakistan batted badly and they suffered and lost.
Pakistan were bowled out for just 55 runs. That is the lowest total any Pakistan Women’s team has ever managed in T20 international cricket.
What Happened in the Match
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first. It seemed like a normal decision at the time. Nobody expected what came next. The batting fell apart almost immediately. Pakistan lost six wickets for just eight runs in only 29 balls. That kind of collapse is very rare, even in T20 cricket, where batting failures usually come and go quickly. The team could not even survive the full 20 overs, getting all out in just 18.1 overs.
Indian spinner Shree Charani was the biggest reason for the collapse. She picked up three wickets, including two in a single over early on. Her flight and turn completely fooled Pakistan’s batters. Prema Rawat also chipped in with three wickets of her own, meaning India’s spin duo did most of the damage between them.
Pakistan’s captain Fatima Sana tried her best to fight back with the ball. She removed both Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal cheaply, briefly giving Pakistan something to cheer about. India slipped to 29 for 3 inside four overs and for a moment it looked like the target might actually be tricky.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma steadied things calmly, guiding India home with 68 balls to spare. Harmanpreet finished the game in style, smashing a four followed by a six to complete the win. It was a fitting way to mark her 150th match as India’s T20I captain, a record no other player, man or woman has ever reached.
Key Players Who Stood Out
A few names played really well on this match. On India’s side, Shafali Verma quietly created history of her own. She became the youngest woman ever to reach 3,000 runs in T20I cricket, doing it at just 22 years and 220 days old.
Harmanpreet Kaur, unsurprisingly, was central to everything India did well. Beyond the milestone of leading her 150th T20I, she finished the chase unbeaten and looked completely in control throughout. Deepti Sharma also played her part with both bat and words, having predicted before the match that India were simply “one step ahead” of Pakistan.
For Pakistan, Fatima Sana was really the lone bright spot. Her bowling figures of three wickets for just 17 runs were genuinely impressive, especially given how little support she got from the rest of the bowling attack. Speaking after the game, she was honest about where things went wrong. “I think we were struggling as a batting side,” she admitted to reporters, adding that the team would “try to play good cricket” going forward.
Harmanpreet, on the other hand, sounded thrilled with her side’s performance. “Very important win for us, happy how the entire team performed today,” she said during the post-match presentation, crediting her bowlers for sticking to their plans throughout the innings.
Where This Leaves the Asia Cup Standings
With the win India finished on top of Group A, having now beaten Thailand, Hong Kong China, and Pakistan in all three of their group games. That is a perfect record heading into the knockout stage.
Pakistan’s situation is very tricky. They are not out of the tournament yet, but their path forward is not simple either. To keep any hope of reaching the semi-finals alive, they now need to beat Hong Kong in their next fixture. Even if they win the qualification would depend on how the numbers work out across the group.
Pakistani fans are worried really about the batting form. A batting collapse this severe raises real questions about depth and consistency heading into a knockout match where there is no room left for mistakes. If a similar batting display happens again Pakistan’s tournament could end quickly.
For now, India sit comfortably at the top of the table, riding a wave of confidence into the semi-finals. Pakistan now will need a much better batting performance if they want their Asia Cup journey to continue past the group stage.
