Bristol: Pakistan captain Fatima Sana hailed her entire team for a comfortable 37-run win over Netherlands in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the County Ground on Saturday.
The Green Shirts, who entered the mega event on the back of a winless campaign in the T20I series in Ireland that also included the West Indies, lost each of their opening four matches in the 12-team tournament and crashed out of the semi-final race.
Although Pakistan have already qualified for the next edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2028, as hosts, their captain Fatima insisted that they must win the last match of the mega event and credited her teammates for achieving the desired result.
“We need a win and credit goes to the whole team for how they played today,” Fatima said in the post-match presentation.
Pakistan’s consolation victory was orchestrated by veteran campaigner Ayesha Zafar, who backed up her 32 with three wickets, earning praise from her captain Fatima, who praised right-hander Gul Feroza for her unbeaten half-century.
“Ayesha Zafar is a veteran and has been playing for Pakistan for a while. She knows how to play responsibly and she did that today,” Fatima said.
“We needed Gul Berosa to bat the way he did,” he added.
Despite the win, Fatima emphasized the need for Pakistan to improve their batting, for which she cited the post-match discussions to express confidence.
“We need to be better in batting. We hope to improve on that after discussing when we go back,” Fatima concluded.