10:06 PM IST, local time: Weather plays spoilsport for the second successive day in Colombo. Pakistan's ambitions of trouncing the four time champions have been ruined by rain.
Remember, coming into this match, both teams were on streaks of their own. England on a winning spree, while Sana and co. on a losing one. Hence, most Pakistan fans would have been pretty happy had they been told before the start of the match that their team could walk away with a point today. However, at this moment, they must be feeling the pain of missing out on the second. And that is a testimony to the impressive performance put in by their team.
The captain led the way. After electing to bowl first, Fatima Sana put a masterclass on display. She ran in hard, hit the right areas and got the ball to seam in awkwardly off the pitch. While most batters were guilty of losing their wickets due to misjudgement of line or length, Sana dismissed the heavyweights with some top-class stuff. Natalie Sciver-Brunt got a pearler, whereas Heather Knight was subjected to multiple close LBW calls. Even today, DRS came to her rescue twice. But the Pakistan skipper kept on asking tough questions and eventually Knight succumbed to it.
Left arm spinner Saida Iqbal impressed too as she accounted for the wickets of Emma Lamb and Sophia Dunkley. Diana Baig and Rameen Shamim picked one each. If not for Charlie Dean's gritty 33 and Em Arlott's stubborn 18, the final reading could have been much worse.
The reason why the match being called off will hurt Pakistan even more is because they had begun strongly even with their weaker suit — batting. Omaima Sohail had set the tone with some fluent front foot drives while Muneeba Ali exhibited stubbornness at the other end. At 34/0, in a chase of 113 (adjusted via DLS method), they had started dreaming of an upset. However, it was not to be.