England vs Pakistan Women’s T20I: Danni Wyatt’s Stellar 87 Powers Series Victory 3-0
England Triumphs Over Pakistan with a 34-Run Victory in the 3rd T20I at Headingley: Danni Wyatt Shines Bright with 87.
Danni Wyatt delivered a masterclass performance, scoring 87 off 48 balls, propelling England to a 176-run total, their highest in the series. Despite being dropped thrice, Wyatt’s explosive batting proved crucial. Her innings featured 13 boundaries, including a spectacular over where she hit Nida Dar for 20 runs.
Pakistan 142 for 4 (Dar 35*, Ecclestone 1-19) lost to England 176 (Wyatt 87, Baig 3-26) by a margin of 34 runs.
With 87 from 48 balls, Danni Wyatt shot herself into stardom and helped England defeat Pakistan 3-0. A sizable crowd enjoyed the Leeds sunshine as Wyatt made the most of getting dropped on 12, 79, and 81 to propel England to their highest score of the series. After that, the bowlers comfortably held Pakistan to a minimum.
England’s efforts would not have appeared as credible without Wyatt. Despite having enough runs on the board, Amy Jones’ 26 was the next-highest score on a real Headingley pitch with a fast outfield. They were finally bowled out from the last ball of the innings. Diana Baig finished with a stat line of 3 for 26, ran out Maia Bouchier for the second straight game, and made multiple acrobatic stops in the field.
Pakistan gave it their all at the bat as well, but they were unable to match England’s might. Sidra Ameen and Gull Feroza, the openers, tied the record partnership between Pakistan and England with a score of 60 runs, but any hopes of setting a new mark were dashed when they went 4 for 13. To assure respectability, Aliya Riaz and Nida Dar stemmed the rot and then delivered some defiant hits during a stand that ultimately surpassed that of Feroza and Ameen.
After hitting a career-high 21 on the most recent tour of New Zealand, Wyatt had scored seven runs off of nine balls in her two previous innings and was obviously keen to contribute significantly this time around. Though it ought to have been the end of her enjoyment, she proceeded cautiously towards Baig and sent a thick edge towards first slip with her sixth and seventh balls, which were crunched to the boundary. But Wyatt survived when wicketkeeper Muneeba Ali was unable to hold on while diving over to her right.
She made sure Pakistan would pay a heavy price for the error. She hit the ball with the same precision as always, and while she was at the crease, she practically single-handedly moved the scoreboard along. At the midway point, Wyatt had amassed 42 runs out of England’s 69 for 2, with Bouchier and Nat Sciver-Brunt falling cheaply. She then picked up her game, thrashing Dar for a six and three fours in an over that cost 20, before adding back-to-back boundaries from Sadia Iqbal in the next.
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After that, Wyatt was dropped twice in three balls, with the perpetrators being Riaz and Sadaf Shamas, before the latter was given an opportunity to atone. As Wyatt approached her third T20I century, she struck Baig high into the off side once more, but Sadaf managed to cling on and run in off the rope. In the fourteenth over, England were 118 for 3, with Wyatt having hit 13 of the 15 boundaries and accounting for three-quarters of the team’s runs.
After Wyatt’s cameo, England’s attempt to, in captain Heather Knight’s words, “put on a show” started to go wrong. At the beginning of the next over, Knight chipped gently for a short extra cover, and at that time, Ameen hit Alice Capsey straight, running her out.
Waheeda Akhtar’s overstep on the first delivery of the sixteenth overshadowed England’s 3 for 4 loss of six balls, but Danielle Gibson was relieved after top-edging to short third and helping Jones and the other batsman add 27 in 16 balls.
Jones appeared in good condition, hitting the boundary four times out of her fifteen attempts. However, following a mishandled Dar full throw to short fine leg by Gibson, Jones spooned a slower ball to Fatima Sana, which Waheeda caught at point (on the third try). Despite this, England persisted in their attack, taking wicket after wicket, including three in Baig’s last over, to end their 20 overs with a dismal 8 for 58.
In the first two Twenty20 Internationals, Pakistan’s all-out scores of 110 and 79, with a top partnership of 30, might be used to sum up their problems in the series.
Here, in an attempt to establish some momentum in their pursuit, Ameen and Feroza increased their effort double, each bagging five boundaries in a steadily rising stance.
After the powerplay, they were 45 for 0—better than England (40 for 1) on both counts—and only lost after Ameen was declared leg before wicket against Sophie Ecclestone and didn’t realize that touch with her glove may have saved her in the replay.
The innings held together even after Feroza left in the following over, surpassing her previous T20I best of 21 not out. Similar to Friday in Northampton, Riaz displayed her long levers, while Dar hammered Charlie Dean for six and four. Their uninterrupted partnership of 65 runs set a new record for Pakistan in the women’s Twenty20 Internationals versus England.
The only modification made by England was to add Lauren Filer’s extra pace for her third T20I cap. She found herself facing the Headingley slope when she overstepped with her third ball, but she quickly increased the speed gun to 75 mph during a two-over span in the powerplay.
In the twelfth over, she made a comeback to secure her first-ever T20I wicket, as Jones was presented with a short ball that had touched the top edge and was beyond Sadaf’s reach. After reaching 73 for 4, the Pakistani innings turned into a practice in limiting damage.
