We keep exceeding expectations

I am so proud of my team that we keep exceeding everybody’s expectations at this event and that we managed to record another victory on Saturday.

The West Indies have done extremely well at this tournament so far, so to record a win over them was an extremely good effort and it was an excellent all-round display from the whole team.

Early wickets were always going to be important and Almas Akram bowled a beautiful opening spell. She may not be very tall but she bowls with good pace and an excellent line-and-length and she received some good support from our other bowlers.

On a personal note, I was pleased with my own spell of bowling, and Bismah Maroof deserves special praise for her outstanding catch. If it had been a televised match then I think that it would have had to be one of the contenders for the catch of the year as she flung herself at full stretch to her left and managed to keep hold of the ball with one hand.

I was a bit concerned when we were reduced to 55 for 5, but I knew that Armaan Khan has the strength and power to hit the ball very hard and so my focus was just on giving her the strike while she accelerated our run rate. It was quite a big ground so it was an excellent accomplishment to hit two sixes.

It was a shame that I couldn’t stay in until the end and guide the team to victory, but the whole side was ecstatic at the end when the winning runs came.

When the game finished, we all tried to grab one of the stumps, and then we went over to salute our noisy supporters. I am not sure where they all came from but there was about 200 Pakistan fans there, making the noise of thousands, and they were singing and dancing and cheering every run. It was amazing to have that level of support from the fans.

It is very exciting that we will have the opportunity to play Australia and New Zealand in our next two matches. We know that if we are to improve our ranking in international cricket we need to have the opportunity to play the best sides in the world and having put in disappointing performances with the bat against India and England, we are determined to prove that we can score runs against the very best.

You learn things from competing against top quality opposition, so to have the opportunity to play against the likes of Karen Rolton, Lisa Sthalekar, Aimee Mason and Haidee Tiffen will be a great experience for all of us.

But are not going to be just standing in the field with our autograph books, just because we are in the presence of the game’s biggest names, and instead our focus will be on beating them. We think we have a good chance of finishing in the top four at this event and we can’t wait for our next game against Australia on Monday.