Sana's all-round heroics take Pakistan to ODI World Cup
To qualify, Scotland and West Indies need to win their next matches by big margins and hope Bangladesh lose badly to Pakistan
Firdose Moonda
17-Apr-2025
Pakistan secured their fourth win of the World Cup qualifier • ICC/Getty Images
Pakistan 205 for 6 (Amin 80, Sana 62*, Putthawong 2-37) beat Thailand 118 (Shamim 3-18, Sandhu 3-19, Sana 3-39) by 87 runs
Pakistan confirmed their participation at the Women's
ODI World Cup after beating Thailand
by 87 runs to secure their fourth win of the qualifier. Pakistan, with eight points, are at the top of the
table and can only be matched by Bangladesh, who they play on Saturday and are in pole position to take the second World Cup spot.
Two other teams - Scotland and West Indies - are also in contention. In order to qualify, Scotland and West Indies need to win their matches against Ireland and Thailand respectively by big margins
and hope Bangladesh lose badly enough to Pakistan to dip below them in net run rate terms.
Bangladesh can qualify for the World Cup even if they lose to Pakistan and both Scotland and West Indies win their final matches because of their net run rate advantage.
Pakistan will be thrilled to have avoided the intricacies of calculations like these after they booked their World Cup places with a game to spare. They are also unbeaten on home turf and have rediscovered their form. Before the qualifiers, Pakistan had last won an ODI in December 2023 and were on a five-game losing streak. In the last week, they put that right and reeled off four straight wins, albeit not always easily, and will now play in their fifth successive World Cup.
Related
Their participation will require additional logistics for the tournament, scheduled for India from late September. In keeping with the
hybrid model agreed by the BCCI and PCB ahead of this year's Champions Trophy, Pakistan are unlikely to travel to India for the tournament and will play their matches at a yet-to-be-decided neutral venue.
Pakistan will not worry about that for now as they celebrate their qualification run led by their captain
Fatima Sana. She injected energy into a pedestrian innings that was meandering at 119 for 4 after 40 overs - a scoring rate of under three runs an over - with a quickfire unbeaten 62 off 59 balls. Sana and
Sidra Amin, who posted her third fifty-plus score of the qualifiers with 80 off 105 balls, shared a run-ball 97-run stand and Pakistan scored 86 runs in the last ten overs to give themselves a defendable total.
Take nothing away from Thailand's bowlers, who were disciplined for the bulk of the innings and created several chances. Two of them were off Sana's bat and she was caught twice off the bowling of offspinner Onnicha Kamchomphu but the deliveries were judged no-balls and Sana continued batting. Without her contribution, Pakistan may have been concerned especially as Thailand's batting has improved as the campaign has gone on.
They scored 259 chasing 306 against Ireland
two days ago which was their highest ODI score and would have believed that even though they had never successfully chased a target above 200, they could give it a good go.
Thailand were hard done by when opener Chanida Sutthiruang was given out stumped off Sadia Iqbal when replays seemed to suggest her foot was grounded behind the line when Sidra Nawaz broke the stumps. But they could not complain when Sana, who came on to bowl in the tenth over, sent down a delivery on a perfect offstump line and Nattaya Boochatham edged behind. Two balls later, Nannapat Koncharoenkai was bowled by offspinner Rameem Shamim and at 44 for 3, Thailand's chances looked grim.
They worked their way to 100 before Sana struck again. She bowled Thipatcha Putthawong and Suwanan Khiaoto to pick up 3 for 39 and is now the joint second highest wicket-taker of the qualifiers, three wickets behind
Hayley Matthews.
Thailand were bowled out for 118 in the 35th over. They remain winless from their four matches so far and sign off against West Indies on Saturday in a match West Indies will be looking to win by as large a margin as possible.
Pakistan Women
West Indies Women
