Women's Cricket
Record 7th wicket partnership rescues India even as sledges fly in commentary box
Women's World Cup: Things got tense in the Indian innings against Pakistan with a middle order collapse. Commentators and former players Anjum Chopra and Sana Mir added to the action by having a go at each other.
India collapsed from 96/1 to 114/6 in a tense period of play between the 22nd and 34th overs of their innings before the highest ever 7th wicket partnership in ODIs between Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana - 122 runs - took them to a total of 244/7 in 50 overs in their World Cup match on Sunday.
Around the time India's middle order was falling apart, commentators Anjum Chopra and Sana Mir also livened up the action with some banter.
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Anjum asked Sana if she was feeling the pressure of the match, to which Sana replied that the pressure she was feeling would have been much more if she was playing.
This somehow turned into a discussion on which of them had gotten the better of each other in their on-field encounters.
Anjum stated that she was sure Sana had never gotten her out. Sana, not completely sure of this stat, said the statistician needed to confirm this.
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"Another piece of stat that we should discuss another day is that Pakistan have crossed 100 just three times in ODIs against India," Anjum then replied.
"You said you'd bring it up another day but then you said it, well done Anjum," Sana Mir ended the exchange as the over ended.
Even on the field, there was some show of aggression, with young players Fatima Sana and Vastrakar seen involved in a heated exchange.
Vastrakar and Rana's partnership broke the previous record by the highest 7th wicket stand for India by a big margin. The previous highest was 77 by Jhulan Goswami and Harmanpreet Kaur in 2012.
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Pakistan will be chasing 245 in their innings to beat India for the first time in an ODI.
"245 is pretty chaseable and the pitch looks flat now, so we hope we can win this," said senior player Nida Dar at the mid-innings break.