Nashra Sandhu became the first Pakistan bowler to claim six wickets in a Women’s T20I, wrecking Hong Kong, China’s chase in their Women’s Asia Cup 2026 fixture and securing a semi-final spot.
By the time left-arm spinner Sandhu came into the attack, right after the Powerplay, HKC had ambled to 28/2 in their chase of 144. Both openers were dismissed one after another: Mariko Hill departed for her third duck in a row, while Natasha Miles was bagged by Sadia Iqbal off her very first ball.
Becapped while bowling, as she usually is, Sandhu first broke the brief resistance between the left-right pair of Yasmin Daswani and Kary Chan – the only real fightback their batting offered – and two overs later, bagged Marina Lamplough and Maryam Bibi in the space of four balls. That reduced them to 40/5, kicking out any chance of a miraculous comeback.
They quickly slipped thereafter. Sandhu was on a hat-trick after taking out Shanzeen Shahzad and Alison Sui with plenty of flight. She gave the ball a lot of air, but also slipped in the odd faster one, a version of which led to her sixth wicket, off the final ball of her spell.
It was her maiden five-for in T20Is, eventually turning out to be the best figures by a Pakistan Women’s T20I bowler, and the second six-fer of this tournament, after Chamari Athapaththu’s 7-5 against Indonesia last week. She also became only the third Pakistan bowler to take a Women’s T20I five-for, after Nida Dar (2018) and Omaima Sohail (2022), both against Sri Lanka.
Chan soldiered on, reaching 30 when Ayesha Zafar cleaned her up in the 16th over. Joyleen Kaur was the last wicket to fall, folding HKC for 71 all out, 72 runs short of their target.
Kaur, though, had a better time in the middle earlier in the evening. Her spell of 4-19 helped HKC keep Pakistan in check, with only four batters crossing into double-digits, including opener Shawaal Zulfiqar, who top-scored with 47 (35). From 92/2, they slipped to 101/6, giving HKC reasons to smile. But Pakistan still pushed past 140, a total that would have looked daunting for the HKC lineup from the get-go. It ended up being far more than they managed.
Pakistan will now face Sri Lanka in the second semi-final on September 11.
Brief scores: Pakistan 143/8 in 20 overs (Shawaal Zulfiqar 47, Ayesha Zafar 26; Joyleen Kaur 4-19, Iqra Sahar 2-27) beat Hong Kong, China 71/10 in 19 overs (Kary Chan 30, Yasmin Daswani 13; Nashra Sandhu 6-7, Fatima Sana 1-7) by 72 runs.
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