Pakistan women 117 for 7 (Javeria 54, Umaima 31, Jahanara 3-12, Rumana 2-19) beat Bangladesh women 89 for 8 (Nigar 30, Fargana 27, Anam 2-10, Saba 2-22) by 28 runs
For the third game in a row, Bangladesh women's batting proved a touch inferior to Pakistan's, this time ending on 89 for 8 after being set 118 to pull off a consolation win in Lahore.
After Bismah Maroof won the toss and opted for first strike - Pakistan had batted first in the earlier games too - Javeria Khan hit a half-century and Umaima Sohail 31 to help them post 117 for 7. Bangladesh were always behind the asking rate, and once it became 12 for 4 at the end of the seventh over, there was no real route back for them.
Jahanara Alam and Rumana Ahmed certainly didn't deserve to be on the losing side on the day. Second ball of the match, Jahanara bowled Ayesha Zafar for 2, and later came back to pick up two wickets, those of Sidra Nawaz and Kainat Imtiaz, in the penultimate over to return 3 for 12. Rumana accounted for Javeria and Iram Javed in the 17th over on her way to figures of 2 for 19.
But the rest of the bowlers returned combined figures of 1 for 86 from 12 overs, and in a low-scoring game, that wasn't good enough. Javeria, especially, made them pay. Fresh off a 44-ball 52 in the previous game, she hit seven fours in her seventh T20I half-century, making 54 in 48 balls, and added 67 for the third wicket with Umaima, whose 31 came in 29 balls with two fours and a six.
Bangladesh's chase faltered right at the start, the top three of Shamima Sultana, Sharmin Akhter and Sanjida Islam dismissed within two-and-a-half overs with just two runs on the board. Anam Amin picked up two of those wickets. Rumana was then run out with the team total at 12, and though Nigar Sultana (30 in 44 balls) and Fargana Hoque (27 in 26) did battle back, their 53-run stand for the fifth wicket took 8.2 overs, never really threatening Pakistan.
Nigar's run out in the 16th over all but finished off Bangladesh's resistance, though they managed to bat out their 20 overs.
Pakistan and Bangladesh will now play a two-match ODI series, also in Lahore, on November 2 and November 4.
