Spinners and Feroza's 62* put Pakistan in semi-finals

Gull Feroza and Muneeba Ali helped secure Pakistan's spot in the semi-finals of the Women's Asia Cup 2024 with their second straight century stand, sealing the first ever ten-wicket win in the tournament's history. Pakistan's spinners, who took seven of the eight wickets to fall, set up the ten-wicket thumping of UAE in Dambulla.

Sadia Iqbal was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 11 at an economy of 2.75. Nashra Sandhu and Tuba Hassan contributed with two-fors, the former taking the first two wickets after UAE's openers made their way out of the powerplay and the latter dismissing Theertha Satish.

UAE scrapped their way to 103 for 8 but Muneeba and Feroza hunted the total down with 35 balls to spare. As a result, UAE ended their campaign with three losses.

Feroza bagged the Player-of-the-Match award in successive games, backing up the 57 against Nepal with an unbeaten 62 against UAE. She could've been out first ball but an edged cut off Samaira Dharnidharka flew between the wicketkeeper, who initially moved in the wrong direction, and first slip.

Her edgy start continued with another streaky boundary in the following over from Kavisha Egodage. But it came after she middled a lap sweep. That got Feroza up and running.

Muneeba found her first slice of luck against Heena Hotchandani in the fourth over with UAE captain, Esha Oza, dropping a catch off the leading edge. More notably, she charged down and got beaten in the flight by Hotchandani in the following over and almost did a full split trying to slide back into the crease. While it looked like she hadn't made it back, the third umpire, after a few replays, gave it not out.

Pakistan ended the powerplay on 42 for 0, with the asking rate under 4.5.

The pressure was further dissipated in Vaishnave Mahesh's opening over which offered seven extras - three byes and four wides - and Feroza used the width to pick up a boundary and a two. Muneeba picked up two boundaries off the front foot off offspinner Suraksha Kotte as Pakistan started hurrying towards victory.

Feroza brought up a 46-ball fifty by punishing a short and wide ball from Hotchandani. The duo did it in ones and twos from there on until Muneeba got a streaky boundary to finish the game.

Nida Dar had won the toss earlier and put UAE in. Oza, who would have done the same, started the match with a boundary but couldn't get going. She faced the first two overs, got beaten twice and could add only three more runs. Theertha got a couple of powerplay boundaries, but like Oza, soaked up dots as UAE made 24 for 0 in the first six.

Oza saw Sandhu's introduction as an opportunity to go big, but she miscued three shots and the fourth one - a swipe across the line - was taken by Aliya Riaz running back from mid-off. Sandhu struck in her next over, courtesy of another brilliant catch as Sidra Amin ran to the right from long-on and took a low, sliding catch to dismiss Rinitha Rajith.

Dar brought herself on after Theertha chanced her arm and picked up eight runs off Sandhu. With her first ball, Dar trapped Egodage but Theertha hit her for two boundaries in the space of two overs. Khushi Sharma then got a couple of twos to take the run rate up to five for the first time since the first over.

Tuba and Iqbal came back on with extra pace after Sandhu bowled out, which led to a wicket in each of the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th overs. It started with the well-set Theertha chopping a pull on to her stumps. UAE's lower order took them over 100 with a theme that underscored the entire innings.

The first instance came in the eighth over when Theertha tried to sneak a single to point. Not only did Riaz not pick up the ball, but also she fumbled to allow the second run.

In the next over, another hurried single to point was completed with the fielder there inadvertently kicking the ball while trying to pick it up. Three balls later, Egodage, who had just come in, got off the mark with a risky single to midwicket as the fielder missed the direct hit.

UAE's regular loss of wickets led to further chaotic running in the back half of the innings. Khushi turned one into two in the 15th over as the fielder at deep midwicket waited for the ball rather than running towards it. Dharnidharka survived a freak run-out, but only just, as the throw from long-on deflected off her body onto the stumps.

The last three overs had three more missed chances, including on the final ball of the innings on which the throw was wide of the bowler. Pakistan's catching, on the other hand, was on point and they'll hope for more of that with a spot in the knockouts theirs.