Muneeba Ali Made History As The First Woman from Pakistan To Score a T20I Century

Left-handed opener Muneeba Ali Siddique played a crucial role in Pakistan’s commanding 70-run victory over Ireland in the Group 2 match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Cape Town on Wednesday.

Muneeba’s maiden T20I century, scored in 66 balls, was the first-ever by a woman batter from Pakistan in the T20 World Cup history.

Throughout her innings, Muneeba displayed an authoritative style of batting, frequently shuffling around to toy with the field placements and hitting the ball over the in-field for boundaries. She smashed a total of 14 boundaries in her extraordinary 102 off 68, surpassing her previous best T20I score of 43.

Muneeba’s partnership of 44 runs with Javeria Khan helped Pakistan get off to a solid start, but Ireland managed to run out Javeria after she scored six off 13 in the sixth over. Despite the loss of captain Bismah Maroof in the eighth over, who had scored a defiant half-century against India on Sunday, a resilient partnership of 101 runs with Nida Dar (33 off 28) helped Pakistan post their highest T20 World Cup score of 165-5.

Muneeba Ali T20I Century
Muneeba Ali T20I Century

Ireland’s batting line-up collapsed as they were all out for 95 in 16.3 overs, with Nashra Sandhu taking four wickets for 18 runs in her four overs. Nida Dar and Sadia Iqbal took two wickets each, while Tuba Hasan and Fatima Sana claimed a wicket each. The spinners took nine of the ten wickets.

The only resistance from Ireland came from Orla Prendergast and Eimear Richardson, who scored 31 and 28 respectively. Pakistan’s previous highest T20 World Cup score was made by Javeria Khan, who scored an unbeaten 74 against Ireland in 2018.

Pakistan’s next match is against West Indies in Paarl on Sunday, followed by a match against England in Cape Town on Tuesday.

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