India vs Pakistan Women's World Cup 2022: Player of The Match, Scorecard, Highlights, Records and Statistics

Mount Maunganui, March 6: Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana struck half-centuries on their World Cup debut while Rajeshwari Gaikwad and Jhulan Goswami starred with the ball as the Indian women's cricket team thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan by a huge margin of 107 runs in the ICC Women's World Cup 2022 here on Sunday (March 6).

The Indian team began their campaign in the showpiece event on a rousing note at Bay Oval and the much-anticipated face-off ended in a no contest. Opting to bat after the coin landed in India's favour, in-form opener Smriti Mandhana, Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar struck useful half-centuries to help their team recover from an early wobble and post 244 for seven.

Chasing a tricky target of 245, the Pakistan team fell way short of the mark and was all out for 137 in 43 overs, losing its 11th straight game against neighbours India in the 50-over format.

Women's World Cup 2022: Vastrakar, Rana, Gaikwad help India beat Pakistan by 107-runs in WC opener

Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad did the star turn with the ball, returning with excellent figures of 4/31 after her full quota of 10 overs. Seasoned pacer Jhulan Goswami bowled very well to finish the game with impressive figures of 2/29, while there were also two wickets for Rana (2/27), capping off her fine all-round show.

Stats:

# This is Team India's 11th successive ODI win over Pakistan

# This is the first Player of the Match award for Pooja Vastrakar and that too in her debut World Cup game.

# The 122-run partnership between Vastrakar and Rana is the highest-ever in women's cricket for the sixth wicket.

# Rajeshwari Gaikwad in her opening World Cup:

2017 World Cup: 5/15 vs NZ

2022 World Cup (today): 4/31 vs PAK

Post-match presentation highlights:

Mithali Raj, winning captain: I am happy we won the first game but a lot of things to work on. When you lose wickets in the middle order, it does put a lot of pressure. The top-order has to score runs in a big tournament like this. When you have all-rounders like Sneh, Deepti and Pooja, we extend our batting lineup. (I) Hope Pooja would be fine before the next game.

Bismah Maroof, losing captain: We bowled well in the middle. We were in the game. We bowled some loose balls and Sneh, as well as Pooja, played well. Credit to them. We bowled some bad balls and gave away easy runs. We were sloppy on the field as well. I think we were doing well and leaked some runs. Didn't capitalise on the momentum. We need to focus more on batting as we didn't play some good shots today.

Pooja Vastrakar, player of the match: I'm very happy, my first player of the match award, in my first WC game. The plan was to somehow try and get to 200. I like to bat in pressure situations, even in domestics, I told the same to Sneh (Rana), to keep the partnership going. The batters told us that the wicket was slow, so the target was 200, but we didn't bat differently. The physio said that the injury will heal quickly and I'll be back soon.