Pakistan’s defeat (Photo:PTI)
Pakistan Women vs South Africa Women: The 11th match of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 was played on 17 June between Pakistan and South Africa in Birmingham. In this match, South Africa defeated Pakistan by 2 wickets. In the match against South Africa, the Pakistan team, which won the toss and came to bat first, was defeated by its own players, who left their captain Fatima Sana to fight alone on the field. Now Chana alone doesn’t make any difference. The same was seen in this match also. Despite not getting support from her players, the Pakistan captain fought alone but could not save the team from the second consecutive defeat in the tournament.
How did the players beat Pakistan?
Pakistan’s decision to bat first proved to be so fatal that it lost 8 wickets for just 50 runs in the 11th over of the game. Now from this you can imagine how the players left no stone unturned in defeating Pakistan. The condition of the top 5 batsmen looked so bad that none of them could score even 10 runs against the South African bowlers.
PAK players kneeled, captain took charge alone
The opening pair broke without scoring any runs on the score board. While Muniba Ali’s account did not open, the other opener Gul Firoza also scored just 1 run. Aliya Zafar, who came down first, scored 9 runs while number 4 Natalia Parvez scored only 4 runs. Ramim Shamim, who came at number 5, also ended on 6 runs. In the powerplay where teams score runs, Pakistan team was seen wasting its wickets. His 5 wickets fell for just 29 runs.
Iram Javed was the first batsman to cross the double figure. After him Aliya Riaz also scored 10 runs. Pakistan’s innings has faltered badly. But when all the players surrendered in front of the South African bowlers, in that difficult time, Pakistani captain Fatima Sana decided to fight alone.
Captain Fatima partnered with the number 10 player
Fatima Sana single-handedly started taking on the South African bowlers. Number 10 batsman Tuba Hasan supported him in this work. That little bit was enough for captain Fatima to take her team beyond 100 runs. Both of them created a new Pakistani record by adding 71 runs to the score board for the 9th wicket. Earlier there was a record of partnership of 30 runs for the 9th wicket, which was broken by Fatima and Tuba. Thanks to the record partnership of Fatima and Tuba, Pakistan team reached 121 runs for 9 wickets from 50 runs for 8 wickets. Tuba Hasan contributed 23 runs in 27 balls.
Fatima remained unbeaten after scoring 55 runs, Pakistan’s score- 126/9
Fighting the South African bowlers alone, Fatima Sana remained unbeaten till the end and faced 38 balls and scored 55 runs at a strike rate of 144.73, which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. Pakistan scored 126 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Marijne Cape was the most successful bowler for South Africa, taking 3 wickets. Whereas 3 players of Pakistan were run out.
Captain Fatima was successful in bowling as well as batting.
Now Pakistan had to defend its 126 runs. But in this work too, the efforts of all-rounder captain Fatima were the best. He took 3 wickets for 16 runs in 2.5 overs. Apart from being the most successful batsman for Pakistan, she was also the most successful bowler against South Africa. But the captain, who fought alone, probably did not get the support she needed from her other players. Yes, it can definitely be said that Pakistan’s bowling in the match was much better than its batting. But the runs on the score board were so few that they were not enough to defeat a strong team like South Africa.
Pakistan team lost to South Africa after 19 balls
South Africa achieved the target of 127 runs in 16.5 overs i.e. 19 balls by losing 8 wickets and thus Pakistan had to suffer its second consecutive defeat in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026.
