Toss Pakistan chose to bat vs Hong Kong

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana decided to bat first against Hong Kong. It was the third time that she opted to bat first in as many matches in this women’s T20 Asia Cup.

Pakistan are second in Group A and a win will take them through to the semi-final. They will go through even if they suffer a close defeat because of the gulf between their net run rates and those of Thailand and Hong Kong, who are third and fourth in the group, respectively.

Hong Kong captain Natasha Miles said that she was happy for her side to bowl first and she looked to secure a win over Pakistan rather than getting drawn into net run rate calculations.

Both teams were unchanged from their last matches. Pakistan presented a special cap to Muneeba Ali before the toss to mark her 100th T20I.

Both teams have suffered defeats in their last matches, incidentally to India. Pakistan, who won their tournament opener against Thailand, lost by seven wickets, while Hong Kong suffered a 137-run defeat. Hong Kong also lost their first match of the competition against Thailand.

This is the first time Pakistan and Hong Kong are playing each other in a women’s T20I.

Pakistan: 1 Muneeba Ali (wk), 2 Shawaal Zulfiqar, 3 Gull Feroza, 4 Ayesha Zafar, 5 Sadaf Shamas, 6 Fatima Sana (capt), 7 Eyman Fatima, 8 Umme Hani, 9 Tuba Hassan, 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal

Hong Kong: 1 Natasha Miles (capt), 2 Maryam Bibi, 3 Mariko Hill, 4 Joyleen Kaur, 5 Marina Lamplough, 6 Yasmin Daswani (wk), 7 Shanzeen Shahzad, 8 Kary Chan, 9 Ruchitha Venkatesh, 10 Iqra Sahar, 11 Alison Siu