Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: Pakistan’s Fatima Sana says ‘no pressure’ on team; challenges India, ‘will attack...’

As India is set to face arch-rivals Pakistan in a crucial second group A match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai on Sunday, Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana has said there is no pressure and her team will stay calm in the clash.

22-year-old Fatima also said that Pakistan will play attacking cricket against India.

“There is no such pressure, but yes, because there will be a crowd and the atmosphere will be like this, so there will be a little pressure on the girls. But we will try to be calm and not take much pressure. When we take pressure, it doesn't go in our favour. We will try to be calm and handle the situation as well as we can,” Fatima said at a press conference.

“First of all, we always wanted to play attacking cricket. I have been watching that whichever team we played against - played attacking cricket. As a bowler, I used to feel that whoever used to bowl against us, used to make hit us from the first ball. I wanted our team to have batters who could punish the bowler from the first ball. We have worked a lot on this, and you will see the result soon hopefully,” Fatima added.

Pakistan is high on confidence after beating a strong Sri Lanka in the first match on Thursday.

Fatima was the star in the match where she bagged the ‘Player of the Match’ award for her all-round performance. She scored a quick-fire 30 and picked up two wickets. Fatima made her international debut in 2019.

India’s poor run-rate

India's run-rate currently stands at a poor -2.99 and it makes big victories mandatory for them in the remaining three matches against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia.

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India team was wretched in all three departments of the game against the Kiwis in its World Cup opener.

On Friday, India was defeated by New Zealand by 58 runs.