Pakistan women cricket team skipper Sana Mir is confident to end the victory drought in the World Cup when her side plays Sri Lanka in its last league match on Saturday at Leicester, England.

Winless Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be looking to end their campaign in the event on a high note by going all out for a win and in the given circumstances the match has gained a ‘special status’ for both the sides to salvage their pride, said the information made available here on Friday to APP.

Sana has one advice for her side to get maximum runs and to perform with the ball to outclass Lankan side. She believes an all-round performance on part of the team will be the key to success.

She urged the fellow colleagues to demonstrate a higher brand of cricket to beat Lankan side and to get a face-saving win.

“It is a sour reality that we have lost our all previous six games but still we can make a comeback and players are capable of giving their best,” she added.

Sana said that as a captain she is under heavy load of responsibility to end the defeats deadlock, adding that she will be doing her best to inspire the team to achieve this objective.

“Nothing is impossible, we will be going to the field with a different mindset to utilise every talent in our side to beat Lanka,” she said.

Lankan all-rounder Shashikala Siriwardena believes a positive attitude can earn Sri Lanka the victory it craves.

Sri Lanka lost by eight wickets to South Africa last time out and despite being without a victory to its name, they are confident to beat Pakistan by demonstrating positive cricket.

Siriwardena is convinced her team is learning with each passing match and is confident of putting it all together against Pakistan.

“We will be going in with a positive attitude because, apart from against South Africa, we have done really well against good countries in this tournament,” she said.

“Our batters always try to pass 200, that’s a huge achievement for us in this kind of tournament.

“We are really happy with the batting performance in this tournament, we have a good combination of spinner and fast bowlers, so we will go into the game with Pakistan with a positive attitude and we would like to go back to Sri Lanka with the win.

“It’s really important that we bounce back against Pakistan because we have the ICC Women’s Championship over the next few months, so winning against Pakistan would be a big boost for us as a unit.”

 

Squads

Pakistan: Sana Mir (captain), Asmavia Iqbal, Ayesha Zafar, Bibi Nahida,

Diana Baig, Ghulam Fatima, Iram Javed, Javeria Wadood, Kainat Imtiaz, Marina Iqbal, Nain Abidi, Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Yousaf, Sidra Nawaz and Waheeda Akhter.

Sri Lanka: Inoka Ranaweera (captain), Chamari Athapaththu, Chandima

Gunaratne, Nipuni Hansika, Ama Kanchana, Eshani Lokusooriya, Dilani Manodara, Harshitha Madhavi, Chamari Polgampala, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Shashikala Siriwardena, Prasadani Weerakkodi and Sripali Weerakkody.

Umpires: Sue Redfern and Kathy Cross, Match referee: Steve Davies.

(Associated Press of Pakistan)