Women's World Cup: Pakistan break a 13-year hoodoo in defeat of West Indies

Pakistan rose to the occasion to break the 13-year-old drought of winning a match in the Women's World Cup as they defeated the West Indies by 8 wickets.

An evening rewarded with a feel-good win for Pakistan as they sat at the bottom of the table with 0 wins in their kitty.

Disciplined bowling from Pakistan

Pakistan bowled tightly from the very first ball. Pakistan won the toss to bowl first, a good decision in a rain-affected game.

West Indies' openers did not get a good start. Their opener, Hayley Matthews, got dismissed for 1 run.

The middle-order collapsed terribly as Anam Amin bowled a tight spell of 4 overs at an average of 1.5 runs putting a lot of pressure on batters.

While she created pressure, Nida Dar (Player of the Match) bowled a magnificent spell of 4-0-10-4.

West Indies got their highest partnership at the tail end, between Afy Fletcher and Aaliyah Alleyne of 26 runs in 23 balls to post a target of 90 runs in 20 overs for Pakistan.

Comfortable win for the Pakistan

As easy as the target looked, Pakistan batters chased down the target in 18.5 overs with the loss of just two wickets.

Their opener Muneeba Ali scored 37 runs off 43 balls while Sidra Ameen got dismissed early for 8 runs.

Following this captain, Bismah Maroof and Omaina Sohail took the match to the end as they both made 20 and 22 runs respectively to register their first win.

There were lots of quick singles throughout the innings for chasing a low yet tricky score in a rain-affected field. 

West Indies lost the match with their bat. Despite putting low scores on board, they have managed to get an edge a couple of times, but failed to do it with the wet outfields. They couldn't pull the game back to their favor even once. 

Bismah Maroof, Pakistan Captain, said, "Feel relief, we wanted to win that badly. We were doing well but could not cross the line. Credit to the girls, we'll look to go onwards and upwards.

"The spinners enjoyed the game, think of the process and not the result ball by ball. With the bat, Muneeba and me talked about taking pressure and picking the balls to hit.

"She scored well and was brilliant. We wanted this win, we were making small mistakes in finishing moments but will take this momentum forward."

West Indies yet have another opportunity coming against South Africa to amend their errors and bat better.

For now, the Points Table is getting more interesting as spots for semi-finals look to be dependent on Net Run Rate rather than just points.

The Women's World Cup continued to thrill with all the uncertainties blooming on-field as Pakistan got their hands on a much-deserved win.