Lahore
\nSkipper Fatima Sana was the headline act as Pakistan women go through to the Women\u2019s World Cup after beating Thailand by 87 runs in their fourth One-Day International (ODI) encounter of the ICC Women\u2019s World Cup 2025 Qualifiers on Thursday.
\nPakistan have booked their spot for the World Cup to be held later this year, courtesy their bowlers who once again stepped up to defend a below-par score of 205.
\nEarlier in the day, player of the match Fatima played a captain\u2019s knock of 62 not out, ably supported by Veteran bat Sidra Amin.
\nSidra top-scored for Pakistan with 80 as the hosts set Thailand a target of 206 to win in the day-night encounter at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Sidra and Fatima\u2019s 97 partnership was crucial for the Green Team after being in trouble earlier in the innings.
\nPakistan\u2019s batting woes continued as the hosts lost regular wickets and could not up their scoring rate in the early half of their innings after opting to bat first. When Fatima joined Sidra at the crease, the score was at a dismal 85-4 in 32 overs.
\nThe Green Team\u2019s batting effort did not get off to the best of starts with the medium pace of Phannita Maya getting the better of Shawaal Zulfiqar, who was playing her first match of the tournament today.
\nThe right-hander was playing in place of newcomer Gull Feroza. She fell while trying to break the shackles after Thailand were brilliant with their bowling discipline in the powerplay, hardly bowling a bad ball upfront.
\nNext to go was in-form top-order bat Muneeba, getting out in a tame manner to spinner Onnicha Kamchomphu\u2019s off-spin. She got a top-edge while sweeping a straight forward delivery to get dismissed by an easy catch in the circle.
\nPlayer of the match for Pakistan in their encounter against Scotland \u2014 Aliya Riaz fell to a run out again. Her dismissal was reminiscent of the way she got out in the previous match against the West Indies \u2014 getting run out by miles after a mix-up in the middle with Sidra.
\nRight-handed batter Sidra, however, was again the player who stepped up during a moment of crisis for Pakistan. She scored her third 50 in four innings in this tournament to bring the hosts back into the match.
\nShe scored 80 of 105 deliveries in an innings that held the Pakistani effort together. She scored eight boundaries as she proved her mettle as the veteran batter of the side.
\nThailand dropped six catches, including the Pakistani skipper, in their bowling innings, giving the hosts plenty of chances to recover.
\nFatima made the most of her luck, scoring an unbeaten 62 of 59 with 5 boundaries and a six and powering Pakistan past the 200 mark in the last over of the innings.
\nThailand\u2019s reply got off to a decent start with the visitors at 44-1 at one stage before Fatima got the crucial breakthrough by dismissing Nattaya Boochatham for 16.
\nHowever, once that wicket fell, Thailand continued to lose wickets regularly. They were outmatched by Pakistan\u2019s spin trio of Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal and Rameen Shamim who made sure the score was never within reach for the visitors.
\nPakistan\u2019s bowling continued to be the saving grace for the Green Team as they made short work of their opponents.
\nFatima lead the bowling attack by grabbing 3 wickets along with team mate Rameen and Nashra.
\nEarlier in the day, Pakistan had won the toss and chose to bat against Thailand on a pitch that didn\u2019t seem to be spin as much as the Green Team\u2019s previous encounter against the Windies.
\nPakistan were the favourites going into this encounter against Thailand, being the higher-ranked side, with the winning momentum of being unbeaten in their first three matches of the tournament going into this clash.
\nThailand came into this match after a high-scoring encounter against Ireland, where they lost by 46 runs after being set a 306-run target by the Irish side.
\nThe six-team ICC event \u2014 which includes Bangladesh, Ireland, Scotland, Thailand and West Indies alongside hosts Pakistan \u2014 features a single-league round-robin format with the matches taking place at the Gaddafi Stadium and LCCA ground in Lahore.
\nThe tournament will decide the two qualifiers for the 2025 Women\u2019s World Cup to be held later this year in India.
\nPakistan, however, will be playing their matches at a neutral venue after a \u201cfusion\u201d model was decided upon following India\u2019s refusal to play its matches in Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year.
\nTeams
\nPakistan: Shawaal Zulfiqar, Muneeba Ali, Sidra Amin, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Sidra Nawaz (wicket-keeper), Fatima Sana (captain), Rameen Shamim, Diana Baig, Sadia Iqbal and Nashra Sandhu.
\nThailand: Nattaya Boochatham, Chanida Sutthiruang, Nannapat Koncharoenkai, Natthakan Chantham, Naruemol Chaiwai (captain), Phannita Maya, Onnicha Kamchomphu, Thipatcha Putthawong, Sunida Chaturongrattana, Suwanan Khiaoto (wicket-keeper) and Suleeporn Laomi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lahore Skipper Fatima Sana was the headline act as Pakistan women go through to the Women\u2019s World Cup after beating Thailand by 87 runs in their fourth One-Day International (ODI) encounter of the ICC Women\u2019s World Cup 2025 Qualifiers on Thursday. Pakistan have booked their spot for the World Cup to be held later this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-473225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n