Fatima Sana leads from front as Pakistan give Sri Lanka the slip

At one point, it looked like Pakistan had no business escaping Sharjah with victory.

All out for 116 in a lacklustre innings where no one passed captain Fatima Sana‘s ultimately crucial 30 in 20 balls, as she batted down the order at No. 7, and losing opening bowler Diana Baig to injury one ball into their defence, Pakistan looked well out of the match halfway through.

But Sri Lanka had no response to their spin attack led by offspinner Omaima Sohail, who proved particularly tricky, keeping the ball low and extracting plenty of turn in taking 2 for 17. Nashra Sandhu also took two wickets and fellow left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal three, while Fatima’s medium pace yielded two in a standout all-round performance from the young skipper.

Baig took no further part in the match after breaking down during her run-up with what appeared to be an injury to her right calf muscle, which was already heavily taped, and Fatima stepped in to complete her over.

Pakistan had already been without Diana at the previous T20 World Cup in South Africa early last year after she fractured her finger shortly before the tournament, but on this occasion Fatima said she believed it was just cramp and “she will be okay in the next match”.

“When I got the captaincy I decided that I will lead from the front, so that’s the main thing I did today,” Fatima said. “Unfortunately we got the early injury, I was under pressure at that time but and Muneeba [Ali] and Nida [Dar] told me that you have to come and do your work and so that’s the main thing because our whole team is banking on it.”

At the age of just 22, Fatima took over from Dar as captain in August. This was just her fourth T20 match in charge.

She may have been quick to credit Dar and Muneeba for their support, but Fatima’s captaincy caught the attention of opposite number, Chamari Athapaththu.

“I would like to congratulate Pakistan captain, Fatima Sana,” Athapaththu said during the post-match presentation. “She played really good cricket and she is always leading from the front.”

Meanwhile, ‘who else besides Athapaththu?’ has been a question following Sri Lanka around for a while now, their skipper enjoying an extended streak of form dating back to mid-2023. Since her unbeaten 80 off 47 balls against New Zealand in Colombo in July last year, Athapaththu has scored 928 runs in T20Is at an average of 44.19 and strike rate of 136.47, compared to her career strike rate of 110.77.

And while it looked like it might be asked once more whether she would prove the difference when she took three pivotal wickets for just 18 runs, in truth, Sugandika Kumari had already gone some way to answering it by removing both Pakistan openers inside the first four overs of the match. Sugandika later returned to remove Baig, the eighth wicket to fall.

Athapaththu took a wicket in the powerplay and two more in as many balls as Pakistan stared down the prospect of being bowled out inside their 20 overs. They reached the end but only just as Udeshika Prabodhani – who also finished with three wickets – removed Sadia, caught by Gunaratne at mid-off, with the last ball of the innings.

When Athapaththu effortlessly scythed Sadia’s third ball to the boundary through point, Sri Lanka fans could have been forgiven for thinking victory would be swift. But that feeling fell away in the third over of the run-chase when Fatima struck, luring Athapaththu to attempt a lofted drive which went straight to extra cover.

As Sri Lanka wickets steadily tumbled – only Nilakshika Silva (22) and opener Vishmi Gunaratne (20 off 34) reached double figures – the run rate never fired and what might have been had Athapaththu stayed in became a question once more.

Vishmi admitted the Sri Lanka batters struggled with the low, slow Sharjah pitch and the lack of pace from Pakistan.

“It wasn’t easy to adjust to the conditions,” she said. “It was low pitch and they didn’t give pace to us and it was very difficult after this.”

Both sides will expect to face sterner tests in the coming days. Sri Lanka play defending champions Australia next, back in Sharjah on Saturday, and Pakistan will play India in Dubai on Sunday.