Amazons vs Super Women – a new dawn in Pakistan cricket

RAWALPINDI: A fresh chapter is about to be written in Pakistan cricket history as Pindi Stadium will host exhibition women's matches on the pattern of the league to be contested in September.

The Amazons will square off against the Super Women in the first of the three Women’s League exhibition matches on Wednesday (today). The first ball will be bowled at 2pm and will be followed by the HBL PSL 8 fixture between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators, which will start at 7pm.

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 matches are a soft launch of the Pakistan Women’s League, which is tentatively planned in 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.

The PCB will use Wednesday’s match to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The second match on Friday will be used to spread awareness about breast cancer in collaboration with Pink Ribbon. The third and final match on Saturday will promote women empowerment through education in collaboration with CIRCLE Women.

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.

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 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 minimum of three foreign players and a minimum of one emerging or U19 player.

Amazons captain Bismah Maroof said: “I am super-excited for the upcoming matches as these will provide us with a unique and rare opportunity to enjoy the same experience as the men’s cricketers. We’ll share the same dressing room, play in front of good crowds and earn equal eyeballs through new and traditional media.

“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.”