India secured a win over Pakistan in their 2nd match of the 9th edition of the T20 World Cup. However, a win over the traditional rivals doesn’t alleviate the concerns about the net run rate(NRR). India needed a much larger win margin over Pakistan after a disappointing loss to New Zealand in their opening match. The NRR issues have cropped up owing to the cautious batting approach they followed during their match with Pakistan and this leaves them with a lot of work to do in their remaining matches.

India restricted Pakistan to a meagre score of 105 runs. Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil were the pick of the bowlers, each scalping three and two wickets. India chased the target in 18.5 overs with Shafali Verma scoring 32 runs. Smrti Mandhana and Shafali Verma opened the innings with a cautious approach and boundaries were hard to come by. The decision to promote captain Harmanpreet Kaur to number 3 backfired as her batting did not take off and was finally retired hurt. Jemima Rodriguez came into bat after Harmanpreet and played a steady hand but was not aggressive enough to improve the NRR to a secured level.

With India’s matches against Australia and Sri Lanka still to come, the team must find a way to accelerate scoring in the middle overs. This is key to grab a spot in the semi-finals. Relying solely on some key players rather than a collective team effort might cost India dearly in the remaining matches. The team needs to reinvigorate themselves and find a way to channel their aggression for the remaining matches.