Nashra Sandhu turned the primary Pakistan bowler to say six wickets in a Ladies’s T20I, wrecking Hong Kong, China’s chase of their Ladies’s Asia Cup 2026 fixture and securing a semi-final spot.
By the point left-arm spinner Sandhu got here into the assault, proper after the Powerplay, HKC had ambled to twenty-eight/2 of their chase of 144. Each openers had been dismissed one after one other: Mariko Hill departed for her third duck in a row, whereas Natasha Miles was bagged by Sadia Iqbal off her very first ball.
Becapped whereas bowling, as she normally is, Sandhu first broke the temporary resistance between the left-right pair of Yasmin Daswani and Kary Chan – the one actual fightback their batting provided – and two overs later, bagged Marina Lamplough and Maryam Bibi within the house of 4 balls. That decreased them to 40/5, kicking out any likelihood of a miraculous comeback.
They shortly slipped thereafter. Sandhu was on a hat-trick after taking out Shanzeen Shahzad and Alison Sui with loads of flight. She gave the ball plenty of air, but additionally slipped within the odd quicker one, a model of which led to her sixth wicket, off the ultimate ball of her spell.
It was her maiden five-for in T20Is, ultimately turning out to be one of the best figures by a Pakistan Ladies’s T20I bowler, and the second six-fer of this event, after Chamari Athapaththu’s 7-5 towards Indonesia final week. She additionally turned solely the third Pakistan bowler to take a Ladies’s T20I five-for, after Nida Dar (2018) and Omaima Sohail (2022), each towards Sri Lanka.
Chan soldiered on, reaching 30 when Ayesha Zafar cleaned her up within the sixteenth over. Joyleen Kaur was the final wicket to fall, folding HKC for 71 all out, 72 runs in need of their goal.
Kaur, although, had a greater time within the center earlier within the night. Her spell of 4-19 helped HKC maintain Pakistan in examine, with solely 4 batters crossing into double-digits, together with opener Shawaal Zulfiqar, who top-scored with 47 (35). From 92/2, they slipped to 101/6, giving HKC causes to smile. However Pakistan nonetheless pushed previous 140, a complete that will have appeared daunting for the HKC lineup from the get-go. It ended up being excess of they managed.
Pakistan will now face Sri Lanka within the second semi-final on September 11.
Transient scores: Pakistan 143/8 in 20 overs (Shawaal Zulfiqar 47, Ayesha Zafar 26; Joyleen Kaur 4-19, Iqra Sahar 2-27) beat Hong Kong, China 71/10 in 19 overs (Kary Chan 30, Yasmin Daswani 13; Nashra Sandhu 6-7, Fatima Sana 1-7) by 72 runs.
