Sana's all-round heroics take Pakistan to ODI World Cup

Pakistan confirmed their participation at the Women's ODI World Cup after beating Thailand by 87 runs to secure their fourth win of the qualifier. Pakistan, with eight points, are at the top of the table and can only be matched by Bangladesh, who they play on Saturday and are in pole position to take the second World Cup spot.

Two other teams - Scotland and West Indies - are also in contention. In order to qualify, Scotland and West Indies need to win their matches against Ireland and Thailand respectively by big margins and hope Bangladesh lose badly enough to Pakistan to dip below them in net run rate terms. Bangladesh can qualify for the World Cup even if they lose to Pakistan and both Scotland and West Indies win their final matches because of their net run rate advantage.

Pakistan will be thrilled to have avoided the intricacies of calculations like these after they booked their World Cup places with a game to spare. They are also unbeaten on home turf and have rediscovered their form. Before the qualifiers, Pakistan had last won an ODI in December 2023 and were on a five-game losing streak. In the last week, they put that right and reeled off four straight wins, albeit not always easily, and will now play in their fifth successive World Cup.

Their participation will require additional logistics for the tournament, scheduled for India from late September. In keeping with the hybrid model agreed by the BCCI and PCB ahead of this year's Champions Trophy, Pakistan are unlikely to travel to India for the tournament and will play their matches at a yet-to-be-decided neutral venue.

Pakistan will not worry about that for now as they celebrate their qualification run led by their captain Fatima Sana. She injected energy into a pedestrian innings that was meandering at 119 for 4 after 40 overs - a scoring rate of under three runs an over - with a quickfire unbeaten 62 off 59 balls. Sana and Sidra Amin, who posted her third fifty-plus score of the qualifiers with 80 off 105 balls, shared a run-ball 97-run stand and Pakistan scored 86 runs in the last ten overs to give themselves a defendable total.

Take nothing away from Thailand's bowlers, who were disciplined for the bulk of the innings and created several chances. Two of them were off Sana's bat and she was caught twice off the bowling of offspinner Onnicha Kamchomphu but the deliveries were judged no-balls and Sana continued batting. Without her contribution, Pakistan may have been concerned especially as Thailand's batting has improved as the campaign has gone on.

They scored 259 chasing 306 against Ireland two days ago which was their highest ODI score and would have believed that even though they had never successfully chased a target above 200, they could give it a good go. Thailand were hard done by when opener Chanida Sutthiruang was given out stumped off Sadia Iqbal when replays seemed to suggest her foot was grounded behind the line when Sidra Nawaz broke the stumps. But they could not complain when Sana, who came on to bowl in the tenth over, sent down a delivery on a perfect offstump line and Nattaya Boochatham edged behind. Two balls later, Nannapat Koncharoenkai was bowled by offspinner Rameem Shamim and at 44 for 3, Thailand's chances looked grim.

They worked their way to 100 before Sana struck again. She bowled Thipatcha Putthawong and Suwanan Khiaoto to pick up 3 for 39 and is now the joint second highest wicket-taker of the qualifiers, three wickets behind Hayley Matthews. Thailand were bowled out for 118 in the 35th over. They remain winless from their four matches so far and sign off against West Indies on Saturday in a match West Indies will be looking to win by as large a margin as possible.

West Indies kept their World Cup hopes alive with a three-wicket win over Bangladesh, who suffered their first loss of the campaign. The result came against the run of play against a West Indies' side that seemed to be unraveling especially in this match.

Early on in the Bangladesh innings, an on-field collision between Matthews and Chinelle Henry as they both tried to get under a skied ball, took them both off the field for a period of time and shortly afterwards, West Indies coach Shane Deitz had been gesturing in frustration to his bowlers. Matthews and Henry returned with no damage done and Deitz had calmed down but Bangladesh were comfortably positioned on 134 for 1 in the 28th over and West Indies looked out of ideas. Sharmin Akhter had registered her third half-century of the tournament and overtaken Nigar Sultana Joty at the tip of the run-scorers' list. In the circumstances, Bangladesh were in complete control.

Then, Fargana Hoque popped a chance back to Aaliyah Alleyne, who took a good, low catch in her follow through and a procession began. Alleyne bowled Sharmin Akhter two balls later and Bangladesh's two set batters were both dismissed but they still had Nigar Sultana in hand. It was when Alleyne also bowled her, for 5, that Bangladesh would have started to wonder where the big runs would come from. Afy Fletcher took two wickets in two overs, Matthews took two in three overs and Alleyne finished off with career-best figures of 4 for 39. She is now the second leading wicket-taker at the event, behind Matthews. Bangladesh lost eight wickets for 80 runs and their total of 227 did not seem enough.

West Indies brought Qiana Joseph back into the team after she missed the Pakistan match and she appeared in much better touch than before. Her 39-ball 31 ensured West Indies had a good start. They were 60 for 2 when Joseph was dismissed and 140 for 3 in the 30th over and progressing steadily. Marufa Akter's stunning double strike took out both Matthews and Stafanie Taylor - fantastically caught when Marufa stuck her left-arm above her head in her follow-through - and at 147 for 5, Bangladesh would have been eyeing victory.

Henry and Shabika Gajnabi shared a 50-run sixth-wicket stand to keep West Indies in the hunt. As the senior partner, Henry took control, scored quickly and was aggressive in her strokeplay. She was on 33 off 40 balls when Gajnabi was caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary and would have known it was up to her to close the game out. Henry went on to bring up her fourth ODI half-century, hit two sixes and got West Indies to the total with four overs to spare.

With this result, West Indies moved up to four points, level with Scotland but with a worse net run-rate.