Bristol, June 27 (IANS) Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana lauded her side’s collective effort after they ended their Women’s T20 World Cup campaign with a 37‑run win over the Netherlands at the County Ground on Saturday.

Gull Feroza’s 63 not out took Pakistan to 126/6 despite losing their last four wickets for just 20 runs, and was followed by Fatima and Ayesha Zafar picking three-fors each to bowl out the Netherlands for just 89.

“We needed a win, and credit goes to the whole team for the way they played today. Ayesha Zafar is also a senior player, and she has played a lot of time in the Pakistan team. She knows how to take responsibility. Today she took it, and the way Gull Feroza batted, I think, is what we needed in the last couple of matches,” said Fatima at the conclusion of the game.

On contributing with the ball despite missing out with the bat, Fatima said, “I think as an all-rounder, I just prefer that whatever I do, it goes to the team. So I think it must be a good day for everyone.”

Asked about learnings from the competition, Fatima pointed towards batting improvements. “Definitely, we need to be better on the batting side. So we need to improve the batting lineup. And hopefully when we go back, we will discuss a lot of things, especially the batting side, because we need to improve more on the batting side.”

Gull, named Player of the Match, said her performance with the bat were really important for herself and the team to break their winless run. “Firstly, it’s very important for my team and me. So I just played my game. I think the pitch was a little bit tricky. So we needed to score runs. We needed to stay on the pitch.

“So we just went and rotated the strike and just changed our plan because we lost a couple of wickets. And that’s why we rotated our strike, and on the bad balls, we punished the bad balls. So it was good for us. I think this win is very important for us as a team. So we just tried to win this match on a positive note and finish well. So that’s good for us.”

The Netherlands captain, Babette de Leede, praised her bowlers despite the defeat, resulting in them ending their tournament without a victory. “I think our bowlers were excellent today. I think to be able to restrict Pakistan to this score on this ground was a really good effort from us. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite get there after a good start.”

Quizzed on the positives the Netherlands will take from playing in their first-ever Women’s T20 World Cup, Babette said, “I think playing against the best teams in the world is so crucial for us as a team to improve our cricket, to learn from this, to play games at this level, I think, is so valuable for us.

“I think this experience has been incredible. We take so much from it. This is only just the beginning, hopefully, for Dutch cricket. It was incredible. I think it was so special. This team, as you know, we’re not professional cricketers at all. So to be able to be here, play the way we have played, I think we can be really proud of ourselves.”

–IANS

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