Women's Asia Cup T20 2024: Can UAE challenge confident India?
The Indian women's cricket team has made a rollicking start to their campaign in the Women's Asia Cup T20 2024. In a one-sided encounter, they defeated Pakistan by seven wickets. Harmanpreet Kaur's team will next meet United Arab Emirates Women in Match 5 on July 21. UAE also won their opener versus Nepal. Here we look at the match preview.
Venue, pitch report, and streaming details
The Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium will host the entirety of the 2024 Women's Asia Cup T20. The venue offers a batting-friendly pitch but bowlers will be in action if they mix up their pace. Spinners dominated the proceedings in the first two games here in this tourney. Star Sports Network will telecast the match while fans can live-stream it on Disney+Hotstar from 2:00pm IST.
Can UAE upset India?
Pakistan were bundled out for 108 against India as Deepti Sharma claimed 3/20. In response, Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma added 85 runs before the job was completed (109/3). The defending champions would be high on confidence as UAE must play out of their skin to cause an upset. Notably, India beat UAE in their only previous WT20I meeting, in 2018.
Here are the playing XIs
India (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Renuka Thakur Singh. UAE (Playing XI): Rinitha Rajith, Lavanya Keny, Esha Oza (c), Khushi Sharma, Kavisha Egodage, Heena Hotchandani, Theertha Satish (wk), Samaira Dharnidharka, Rithika Rajith, Indhuja Nandakumar, Vaishnave Mahesh.
