Pakistan women lose first T20I against England by 29 runs

Pakistan women's team lost the first T20 international match against England by 29 runs at Kinrara Oval cricket ground, Kuala Lumpur.

Pakistan decided to bowl after winning the toss in the first of the three match series.

The green team enjoyed a decent start as they managed to remove the dangerous Danielle Wyatt for only 6 runs. She was caught and bowled by Nida Dar who went on to pick another wicket later in the innings .

Opener Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont, however, managed to add 58 runs for the second wicket to swing the momentum towards England. Jones was the primary scorer in the innings and the partnership as she scored 53 runs off just 39 balls before being bowled by Syeda Aroob Shah.

England managed to string together a couple of partnerships again to finish with 154 runs on the board for the loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs.

Tammy Beaumont and Natalie Scriver faced 29 balls each scoring 30 and 34 runs respectively while Katherine Brunt and captain Heather Knight added quickfire 18 and 13 runs to the total.

For Pakistan Nida Dar managed to pick up two wickets while Anam Amin finished with one scalp. Syeda Aroob Shah was the pick of the bowlers managing to pick up one wicket while conceding only 21 runs. 

Pakistan women's team, in reply, was bowled out 29 runs short of the target despite Bismah Maroof's brilliant 60 runs.

Pakistan had the worst possible start, losing openers Nahida Khan and Javeria Khan for zero in the very first over. 

Captain Bismah Maroof and Umaima Sohail added 46 runs for the fourth wicket to give Pakistan some hope but Sophie Ecclestone dented Pakistan's hopes by removing Umaima on 21.

Bismah held one end together but could not find any support from the other as Pakistan was left reeling at 61 for 6.

Sidra Nawaz lent a helping hand to her captain as the two added 60 runs before Sidra fell for 22 in search of quick runs. 

The rest of the batting lineup fell without any contribution as another mini collapse saw Pakistan go from 121 for 7 to 125 all out.

Bismah was the last batter out for Pakistan, finishing with 60 runs. Umaima and Sidra were the other two batter to get into the double figures as the rest of the team could not even manage that. 

For England, Sophie Ecclestone finished with 3 wickets while Natalie Scriver and Freya Davies managed to pick up two wicket each.