Former Pakistan captain Sana Mir criticised Pakistan's effort in the field in their must-win T20 World Cup clash against New Zealand, in which they dropped eight catches.
Pakistan must win the final group game in group A by a significant margin in order to boost their net run rate enough to qualify for the semi-finals. With New Zealand batting first, limiting them to a low total which Pakistan could chase down quickly was essential.
However, Pakistan damaged their chances with a poor performance in the field that started in the third over of the match. A Georgia Plimmer drive off Fatima Sana was missed by both fielders at mid on and off, going down to the straight boundary for four. The same two fielders collided attempting to stop another drive from going to the boundary in the following over.
The first catch went down in the fifth over of the innings, Muneeba Ali to take a sharp chance to dismiss Suzie Bates. The second, more simple, chance went down an over later, Nashra Sandhu shelling a catch sent straight to her at mid wicket after Bates advanced down the pitch. However, the first catch of the innings finally stuck when Kerr skied Sandhu up into the air, Sana taking the ball juggled off her second attempt.
Omaima Sohail continued the pattern off her own bowling in the seventh over, Amelia Kerr sending a half tracker straight back at the off spinner, which she dropped despite getting both hands to. After a quiet middle period of the match, Sidra Amin gave Sophie Devine a life, dropping a simple chance at long off. That was followed in the 17th over that had two missed runout chances, before Sohail put down another chance in the deep, this time off Brooke Halliday.
All of those chances, however, reached a crescendo in the final over of the innings, which New Zealand started on 102-5. Sana put down a regulation chance off Maddy Green off the first ball, going in and out of her hands at long on, before she dropped an almost identical chance two balls later. The penultimate ball of the innings saw another chance go down, in the deep - a third life for Green in the over. Sana finally saw that Green was dismissed off the final ball of the innings, holding another chance in the deep.
Speaking on TV coverage of the game, Mir - who was Pakistan's captain from 2009 to 2017 - expressed her disbelief at the amount of catches her former side put down. "I've never seen this in 15 years of playing," said Mir in the final over of the innings.
Despite limiting New Zealand to 110, Pakistan's chances of chasing the total fast enough to qualify for the semi-finals were quickly all-but over. Having promoted Aliya Riaz and Iram Javed up the order, Pakistan slipped to 28-5 in the sixth over, needing another 83 runs off 28 balls to do so.
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