Pakistan eyes third Gold medal in Asian Games women's cricket

KARACHI: Pakistan women cricketers are hopeful of completing a hat-trick of Gold medals in the Asian Games by winning the title in Hangzhou, China, this month.

Pakistan won the Asian Games gold medal in women's cricket in the 2010 and 2014 editions, the 2018 edition of the Asian Games did not feature Cricket but the sport returned to the continental sporting pinnacle for its edition this year.

Aliya Riaz, Muneeba Ali and Nashra Sindhu told Geo News that they’re hopeful of a good show in the event as the team is well prepared after the series against South Africa at home.

“We have previously won two Gold medals in the Asian Games, now we are aiming to win the third. We did well in T20Is against South Africa and that has boosted our confidence, we are well prepared and capable of winning the gold medal,” said senior all-rounder Aaliya Riaz.

Pakistan had defeated South Africa 3-0 in the T20I series before losing the ODI series 2-1 at home.

Senior batter Muneeba Ali feels that the series against South Africa provided the team a great opportunity to prepare for the upcoming event.

“The series against South Africa was a good preparation for us ahead of the Asian Games. We did well against them and it allowed us to gel well, we are very much confident of winning a third medal at Asiad,” said Muneeba Ali.

Her comments were echoed by Nashra Sandhu who said that the team is in high spirits and looking forward to doing well and continuing their good run in the Asian Games.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket team has left Lahore for Hangzhou. They’ll reach the Chinese city via Doha.

Pakistan will directly play the quarter-final in Asian Games against one of the lower-ranked teams and if there’s no upset then Pakistan will face Sri Lanka in the semi-final and most likely India in the final.