How Pakistan were bowled out for 55 in the Women’s Asia Cup

Pakistan were bowled out for 55 by India in Dubai on 5 September 2026, their lowest total in women’s T20 internationals. They were 27 without loss after 4.3 overs, then lost six wickets for eight runs. India’s four spinners took 9 for 31 in 14.1 overs. India won by seven wickets.

Pakistan won the toss at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 5 September and chose to bat. They were bowled out for 55 in 18.1 overs. India chased it down in 8.4 overs for the loss of three wickets, winning by seven wickets with 68 balls to spare.

That is the result. It is not the explanation. A team bowled out for 55 has usually been blown away inside ten overs, but Pakistan batted for 109 balls, which is more than most sides manage when they are dismissed this cheaply. What happened to them was narrower and stranger than a collapse from the first ball.

Source: the match scorecard on ESPNcricinfo. Live cards for every game in the tournament are on our live scores page.

Where did Pakistan's innings actually come apart?

For four and a half overs, nothing was wrong. Muneeba Ali and Shawaal Zulfiqar took Pakistan to 27 without loss off 27 balls, which is a run a ball, and Zulfiqar had hit three of the innings' six fours.

Then five wickets fell in 28 balls for eight runs, and a sixth followed immediately.

Pakistan finished the six-over powerplay on 29 for 3. By the second ball of the tenth over they were 35 for 6, and the innings had already been decided. Everything after that was a tail trying to bat out overs it had no way of scoring in.

Why did India's spinners do all the damage?

India bowled two seamers and four spinners. The split is the single most revealing number in the match, and it is not close.

Those totals are derived by adding the individual figures on the scorecard. Shree Charani, the left-arm spinner named player of the match, finished with 4 overs for 7 and took two wickets in her first over. Prema Rawat's leg spin returned 4 overs for 9, and ESPNcricinfo's report notes she bowled 19 dot balls out of 24. Deepti Sharma took 2 for 5 from 3.1 overs. Shafali Verma, who is an opening batter who bowls part-time off spin, took the first wicket.

Nine wickets for 31 runs from four spinners is not a spell of unplayable bowling. It is a set of bowlers who never allowed a scoring option to open up, against a batting side that had no answer other than to wait.

Did the pitch make the total inevitable?

Partly, and it is worth being careful here, because "slow pitch" is the easiest explanation to reach for and the easiest to overstate.

Dubai has been slow all tournament. When Pakistan beat Thailand at the same ground on 1 September, the ICC's own report described a slow pitch on which the scoring rate never took off, and Pakistan's winning total that night was 119.

But India batted on the same square and made 193 for 5 against Hong Kong China on 3 September, with Smriti Mandhana scoring 124 off 64 balls, and 159 for 9 against Thailand on 30 August. The surface was low and slow. It was not a surface on which 55 was a reasonable score.

Why did the last four wickets take nine overs?

This is the part of the innings that a scorecard hides, and it is where the match is most interesting.

From 35 for 6 in the tenth over, Pakistan's last four wickets added 20 runs in 54 balls, a rate of 2.22 an over. Umm-e-Hani faced 18 balls for 6. Tuba Hassan faced 16 for 9. Nashra Sandhu and Sadia Iqbal faced ten balls between them for nothing.

The whole innings breaks down like this:

• Numbers one to seven: 37 runs off 65 balls
• Numbers eight to eleven: 15 runs off 44 balls
• Extras: 3
• Boundaries: six fours, no sixes, so 24 of the 55 runs came in boundaries

Batting out the overs was a defensible choice for a side six down inside ten. Once the top order had gone there was no realistic total left to chase, and the alternative was being bowled out for 40 and handing India an even larger net run rate swing. What it also means is that Pakistan's 55 is not the story of a side that panicked. It is the story of a side that could not find a boundary for the last nine overs of an innings.

Was India's chase actually comfortable?

By the margin, obviously. By the first four overs, less so.

Fatima Sana, Pakistan's captain, took three wickets for 17 in three overs and had India 29 for 3 inside four overs. She removed Shafali Verma caught and bowled, trapped Smriti Mandhana lbw, and had Pratika Rawal caught behind square. On a chase of any size that spell changes a game.

The target was 56. Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma added an unbroken 28 from 28 balls, and India were home in the ninth over. Harmanpreet finished on 18 not out, Deepti on 12 not out.

Fatima Sana bowled the best spell of the match by strike rate and it made no difference to the result. That is what a total of 55 does to a game: it removes every scenario in which good bowling matters.

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The match was also Harmanpreet Kaur's 150th T20I as captain. ESPNcricinfo's report records that no other cricketer, male or female, has led a national side in 150 matches in the format.

What does the result do to the Women's Asia Cup?

India have now played all three of their Group A matches and won all three, against Thailand on 30 August, Hong Kong China on 3 September and Pakistan on 5 September. With six points from a completed programme, no other side in the group can catch them.

The pattern in that table is the thing to carry into the knockout rounds. India have bowled out all three opponents, for 65, 56 and 55, and their spinners have done the bulk of it in every case.

Pakistan have one group fixture remaining, against Hong Kong China, and are still in contention for a semi-final place. Fixtures and start times for the rest of the tournament are on our match schedule, and the full tournament page sits under series and tournaments.

Where does 55 sit in Pakistan's record book?

It is the lowest total Pakistan have made in a women's T20 international, as at 6 September 2026, and ESPNcricinfo's match report records it as such.

The previous mark was 56, made at the same ground: Pakistan were bowled out in 11.4 overs chasing 111 against New Zealand in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup on 14 October 2024, and lost by 54 runs.

The two innings are not really the same event. In 2024 Pakistan needed to chase a target inside 10.4 overs to improve their net run rate enough to qualify, so the batting was deliberately reckless and the innings lasted 70 balls. In Dubai on Friday they had 20 overs, no equation to beat, and still could not get past 55 in 109 balls. Of the two, the second is the harder one to explain away.

What should Pakistan take from it?

Two things stand out from the numbers rather than from the mood around the result.

The first is that the top order was not out-bowled by pace or by anything exotic. Four spinners, one of them a part-time off spinner, took nine wickets between them, and five of the top six were dismissed bowled, lbw or caught in the ring. That is a batting problem against spin in the middle overs, and it is a fixable one.

The second is that Pakistan have now been kept under 120 in both of their completed innings at this tournament, including the game they won. Their bowling has been competitive throughout, with Fatima Sana taking three wickets in a losing cause and Sadia Iqbal and Nashra Sandhu doing serious work against Thailand. The batting is where the tournament will be decided for them.

Statistics in this article were checked as at 6 September 2026.

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