India beat Pakistan by 64 runs at the Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham on Sunday (June 14). The Women in Blue opted to bat first in this Group A fixture and posted 170/6, riding on Smriti Mandhana’s 68 off 44 and Richa Ghosh’s 17-ball 34. In response, Pakistan managed 106.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side were 129/5 after 17 overs and looked like they would fall short of the 150-run mark. However, Richa shifted her gear in the end to help India end on a high, most notably helping the side accumulate 23 runs off the penultimate over with 5 of those runs coming off Deepti Sharma’s bat.

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In response, Pakistan got off to a good start before Deepti’s double strike, 2 wickets in 9 balls, jolted the Women in Green after which they could not really recover. She eventually finished with a five-wicket haul, finishing with 5 for 10 runs in her 4 overs. Shree Charani scalped 3 wickets for 21 runs.

India join Bangladesh, Australia in Group A

The result means India now now join Bangladesh and Australia as teams to have won their first matches. Meanwhile, Netherlands, South Africa and Pakistan lost their opening Group A fixtures.

In Group A, England, Scotland and West Indies have won their opening matches while New Zealand, Ireland and Sri Lanka tasted defeats.

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Format of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026

After a round robin where each team plays every other team in their group once, the top two teams from each group proceed to the semi-final. The team that tops the table in Group A plays the team that comes second in Group B and the team that finishes on top in Group B will locks horns with the side that comes second in Group A.