Australia Keep Hopes Alive By Beating Pakistan

Australia Keep Hopes Alive By Beating Pakistan

Pakistan were disappointed again.

©ICC

Australia Women 229-6 (Nitschke 56, Ebsary 51, Sana Mir 2-35) beat
Pakistan Women 122 (Asmavia Iqbal 36, Poulton 2-9) by 107 runs
Scorecard | Points Table
Women's World Cup, Super Six, Bankstown Oval, Sydney

Australia Women got back to winning ways with a comprehensive 107-run victory over Pakistan Women in their penultimate Super Six match in the World Cup.

A reshuffled batting order worked for Australia, as opener Shelley Nitschke (56) and Lauren Ebsary (51) all made good contributions as they posted 229 for six from their 50 overs.

Leah Poulton made 47, combining to add 100 for the first wicket with Nitschke and Jodie Fields made another useful score, making 36.

Sana Mir was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers, removing both openers to pick up two for 35 from her ten overs.

Pakistan were then bowled out for 122, the gulf in class between the two sides apparent, although they can take credit from batting out 45.1 overs before Australia prevailed.

Asmavia Iqbal top scored with 36 and Bismah Mahoof made 24, but too many single figure scores meant that their challenge was realistically over long before the final wicket was taken.

Rene Farrell, Ellyse Perry and Poulton took two wickets apiece.

Stand-in captain Alex Blackwell was pleased with the all-round performance her side put in.

“We had a few people contributing with the bat all throughout the order which was a good change from the others games we’ve had," she said. "We were more disciplined with the ball and hit the right areas which made it easier to set the right fields.

“We’re a team that’s more than capable of beating England and we’re very confident that we can do that.

“We’re just concentrating on winning our games well and letting rest take care of it itself. We can’t really control it but we know that there is a sliver of hope that we can make the final.

Australia must beat England in their final Super Six match on Thursday (16th March) and hope that New Zealand and India drop points if they are to make the final.

© Cricket World 2009

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