Women's World T20: Mitali Raj guides India 7-wicket victory over Pakistan

Providence (Guyana), Nov 12 (IANS) Seasoned batter Mithali Raj cracked a half century to guide India to a facile seven-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC Women's World T20 here on Sunday. SCORECARD

Raj held fort from one end to make short work of India's run chase with a 47-ball 56 which she made with the help of seven fours in the Group B match which was marred by unprecedented docking of 10 penalty runs on Pakistan.

Even before a ball being faced, 10 runs were on India's scoreboard after Pakistan were docked five-run penalty twice during their innings on account of their batswomen running on the danger area of the pitch during their innings.

India had little difficulty in gunning down the modest target of 134 with six balls to spare, reaching 137 for 3 in 19 overs. 

Previous game centurion and captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy remained not out on 14 and 8 respectively. Courtesy the victory, India (with four points) now have one foot in the semifinals from the five-team Group B. 

Two teams each from the two groups qualify for the semifinals.

India never looked in trouble with openers Raj and Smriti Mandhana (26) finding the boundaries at regular intervals in their 73-run partnership. 

Mandhana fell to Bismah Maroof with Omaima Sohail taking a crisp catch at deep square leg. Jemimah Rodrigues (16) was then caught and bowled by Nida Dar in the 15th over but it hardly matter in the end.

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