Amazons to face Super Women in Pakistan's women’s league exhibition today

• Match is being held to celebrate International Women’s Day.
• It will start at 2pm at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
• Bismah Maroof to lead Amazons, Nida Dar to captain Super Women.

RAWALPINDI: All roads will lead to the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Wednesday afternoon when the Amazons will square off against the Super Women in the first of the three Women’s League exhibition matches. 

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will use today's match to celebrate International Women’s Day which will start at 2pm. 

Pakistan’s most successful women’s captain Bismah Maroof will lead the Amazons, while Nida Dar, who has the most T20I wickets (126), will captain the Super Women.

The matches are a soft launch of the Pakistan Women’s League, which is tentatively planned for September. The four-team competition is expected to be held on a single-league basis. A number of high-profile foreign players, some of whom are already in Pakistan, have already expressed their interest in participating in the league.

Pakistan’s 26 elite and emerging women cricketers will be joined by 10 international stars from seven countries in the extravaganza. Two women’s umpires, Humaira Farah and Saleema Imtiaz, will share on-field umpiring responsibilities with Shozab Raza and Tariq Rasheed.

The second match on Friday will be used to spread awareness about breast cancer in collaboration with Pink Ribbon, while the third and final match on Saturday will promote women empowerment through education in collaboration with CIRCLE Women.

Ireland captain Laura Delany, England’s trio of Danni Wyatt, Maia Bouchier and Tammy Beaumont, and Australia’s Tess Flintoff are Amazons' international stars, while the Super Women squad features Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu, Lauren Winfield-Hill of England, Jahanara Alam of Bangladesh, South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt and Lea Tahuhu of New Zealand.

Wolvaardt was the top-scorer at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 with 230 runs and is the sixth-ranked T20I batter in the world. She is followed by Athapaththu (11th), Wyatt (16th), Beaumont (44th) and Delany (61st). Tahuhu is the highest-ranked foreign bowler in eighth position, followed by Jahanara (60th).

Beaumont and Wyatt have hit three T20I centuries between them. Beaumont hit the third-quickest T20I century off 47 balls while scoring 116 against South Africa in 2018. Wyatt struck the seventh and 12th quickest T20I centuries while scoring 100 (vs Australia) and 124 (vs India) in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The 25-year-old left-handed bespectacled wicketkeeper/batter made international headlines when she scored 102 against Ireland in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. This was the only century of the competition, and the sixth overall since the inception of the tournament in 2009.

Apart from Nida Dar, two Pakistan women cricketers, who have been adjudged ICC Women’s Player of the Month, will show their skills in front of home crowds. They are Sidra Amin and Tuba Hassan.

The 36 cricketers have been equally divided into two sides with the playing line-ups to include a maximum of four and a minimum of three foreign players and a minimum of one emerging or U19 player.

Matches to provide same experience as male cricketers: Bismah

Amazons captain Maroof said she is excited about the matches as these will provide the women's team with a unique and rare opportunity to enjoy the same experience as male cricketers.

"We’ll share the same dressing room, play in front of good crowds and earn equal eyeballs through new and traditional media," she said.

“The presence of foreign cricketers will especially provide our young and upcoming cricketers with a chance to learn from their experiences and knowledge, and incorporate these into their lifestyles, daily workouts and match preparations so that they can become better cricketers.”

Meanwhile, Super Women captain Dar said the PCB has done its bit by arranging these matches and now the onus is on the players to make optimum use of this opportunity and show the world what they're capable of.

"This is a great opportunity for parents to bring their children and let them fall in love with cricket," she said.

Squads

Amazons: Bismah Maroof (captain), Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Areesha Noor, Danni Wyatt (England), Eyman Fatima, Fatima Khan, Fatima Sana, Ghulam Fatima, Gull Feroza, Kainat Imtiaz, Laura Delany (Ireland), Maia Bouchier (England), Nashra Sundhu, Sadaf Shamas, Sidra Nawaz, Tammy Beaumont (England) and Tess Flintoff (Australia)

Super Women: Nida Dar (captain) Aimen Anwar, Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), Iram Javed, Jahanara Alam (Bangladesh), Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa), Lauren Winfield-Hill (England), Lea Tahuhu (New Zealand), Muneeba Ali, Natalia Parvaiz, Omaima Sohail, Sadia Iqbal, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah, Syeda Masooma Zahra, Tuba Hassan and Umm-e-Hani

Schedule

March 8: Shozab Raza and Saleema Imtiaz (on-field umpires), Tariq Rasheed (third umpire) and Humaira Farah fourth umpire. Mohammad Anees (match referee)

March 10: Shozab Raza and Humaira Farah (on-field umpires), Tariq Rasheed (third umpire) and Saleema Imtiaz (fourth umpire). Mohammad Anees (match referee)

March 11: Tariq Rasheed and Saleema Imtiaz (on-field umpires), Shozab Raza (third umpire) and Humaira Farah (fourth umpire). Mohammad Anees (match referee)

All matches will be held at the Pindi Cricket Stadium and start at 2pm.