Cape Town: Teen sensation Ayesha Naseem might have made the cricket world sit back and take notice of her batting prowess against India in the T20 World Cup but her skipper Bismah Maroof is pained at the realisation that Pakistani women won’t be part of the WPL auction.
Maroof, who scored one of her best T20 half-centuries (68 off 55 balls) and young Naseem (43 not out off 25 balls) did push India to the limits but Monday when most of the women internationals in South Africa would be hoping for a bid, Pakistani girls would only be able to watch it on their phones.
Pakistani players (male or female) are not allowed in BCCI’s flagship events — IPL and now Women’s Premier League (WPL).
“We as Pakistan, you know we don’t get many opportunities to play in the leagues that’s very unfortunate. Of course, we are not liking that and definitely we will love to play every opportunity we get in the leagues but yeah that’s what it is and we can’t control that,” Maroof said.
On the team’s defeat against India, Maroof pointed at mistakes in the bowling department.
“I think overall we played very good cricket throughout the match but I think we did have errors in our bowling. I think that was cautious but overall, I think it was a very good match and we will take that forward and be better in the next game.”
Maroof praised India’s batting depth.
“Yeah, we know that will be close because we know that India have a very deep batting. So it was just the ball in the right areas and I think we are on the wrong side today (Sunday) but yeah learning from this we will take that forward in the next game and improve,” she said.
“I think in the last five to six overs we gave away too many runs and we didn’t keep them quiet. I think we gave away boundaries at the wrong time so I think that may be the turning point for us.”
PTI