Alyssa Healy looked shaken and an air of concern descended on her Australia side as Tayla Vlaeminck lay in a crumpled heap on the boundary's edge, clutching her shoulder. Surely this wasn't happening.
Right-arm quick Vlaeminck had just come into the side to add "impact" to the bowling attack for their first outing in Dubai, Australia having begun their T20 World Cup campaign with two wins on a spin-friendly Sharjah pitch that swing bowler Megan Schutt had managed to master. Now, just four balls into the game, Vlaeminck was out with a right-shoulder dislocation to add to a long list of serious injuries.
They clearly felt for her. Two ACL injuries, a twice-dislocated left shoulder and stress fractures to her foot had severely curtailed Vlaeminck's career and still she'd kept fighting back. But as she received treatment, Australia entered a huddle, Ellyse Perry gave them a pep talk and they picked themselves up - then picked Pakistan apart.
Bowled out for 82, the lowest total at this tournament, Pakistan - without captain Fatima Sana, who had flown home to Karachi following the death of her father on Thursday - could mount no resistance agaisnt a side whose depth is the envy of the world and would be tested further...
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Alyssa Healy grimaced and pulled up sharply as she came back for a second run and an air of concern descended on her Australian side. Surely this wasn't happening.
She and Perry were cruising through Australia's pursuit of 83 after Beth Mooney fell for a run-a-ball 15 and now the captain was hobbling from the field.
Healy had to hop up a set of stairs leading to the changeroom and Cricket Australia later confirmed that she had suffered "an acute right foot injury". She was set to undergo scans on Saturday after which her availability for the rest of the tournament was expected to become clearer.
What is clear is Australia's ability to overcome such setbacks.
Schutt, Australia's standout performer with the ball so far, took 1 for 7 from three miserly overs to overtake Pakistan's Nida Dar as the leading wicket-taker in women's T20Is with 144.
Then Ashleigh Gardner claimed 4 for 21 - including three in the penultimate over - with her offspin to record her best T20I figures since taking 5 for 12 at the previous edition of the tournament last year in Paarl.
"There were people that were obviously emotional. I think that just shows the care that we have for our team-mates. Tay has worked so hard to get back here and she's earned it. To see her go down like that, we had to regroup really quickly" Ashleigh Gardner on Tayla Vlaeminck's injury
Vlaeminck's injury had hit the team particularly hard given that this was her first World Cup match since 2018 and just the second of her career.
"It's obviously horrible seeing one of your mates go down and knowing Tay's road to get back to here," Gardner said. "She's someone that probably works harder than anyone else I know so to see someone like that go down with another injury, we all really felt for her.
"There were people that were obviously emotional and things like that and I think that just shows the care that we have for our team-mates and especially Tay. She's worked so hard to get back here and she's earned it, so to see her go down like that, we had to regroup really quickly.
"Pez [Perry] just brought us all in and she reverted back to the Mackay incident, where that kind of erupted pretty quickly and just to make sure that everyone was okay and to get on with it. That's the nature of sport, unlucky things happen and then you've just got to get on with it and then wait until after the game to make sure that Tay was okay. She's in good spirits which is nice to see."
The "Mackay incident" refers to when Gardner herself was withdrawn from Australia's starting XI right before the toss in last month's first T20I against New Zealand in Mackay when she collided with team-mate Georgia Wareham during the warm-up and suffered a knock to the jaw.
On Friday, Gardner conceded seven runs in the second over of the match but in the 19th, she had Tuba Hassan stumped by Healy, then took two wickets in as many deliveries when Syeda Aroob Shah spooned a catch straight to Mooney at midwicket and she pinned Nashra Sandhu lbw with one that spun back in and ripped past the outside edge.
It was also Gardner who came in to bat when Healy retired hurt, scoring an unbeaten 7 off five balls while Perry remained not out 22. In mowing down their 83-run target in just 11 overs, Australia's net run rate now sits at a healthy 2.786. But Gardner expects to face a sterner test in their final group game against India on Sunday.
"I wasn't overly happy with how I bowled that over in the powerplay," she said. "But then to come back and change that, the bowlers that bowled before me laid a fantastic platform for me to take wickets at the back end and mop up the tail, as some would say, but it was nice to be able to get some wickets.
"Certainly going to the next game I know I'm going to be challenged. I'm going to have to bowl two overs probably in the powerplay against someone like Smriti Mandana so the challenge is always there and I relish those environments. Hopefully I'm on the upper end against her."