Watch: Smriti Mandhana's superb diving catch dismisses Ayesha Zafar — IND vs PAK Women's T20 World Cup 2026

After her batting recovered India to a strong total during the opening encounter of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 against Pakistan at Edgbaston in Birmingham, Smriti Mandhana showed her brilliance in the field with a couple of crucial catches at a critical stage of the game to pull the game back in their favor.

Pakistan started well in the 171-run chase as the blue brigade was sloppy with their bowling performance inside the powerplay overs. India were not able to put enough pressure on the two batters.

The catch: Mandhana dives full length to pull off a stunning catch at backward point

On the third delivery of the seventh over of the chase, Deepti Sharma dismissed Ayesha Zafar for 12 runs off eight balls with a couple of boundaries. It was the second wicket for the spinner, who put up a flighted delivery outside the leg-stump.

Watch Smriti Mandhana's superb catch here- 

The batter walked across and got low to sweep. It was a decent contact, but he didn’t hit it into the gap. Smriti Mandhana dived forward at the short fine leg region and took a sharp two-handed catch. The ball was dying on her as Mandhana did well to hold onto it.

See Also: Watch: Fatima Sana celebrates Harmanpreet's wicket with aggressive send-off after handshake snub

She also grabbed a fine catch to dismiss the Pakistan captain, Fatima Sana, for a three-ball duck. The batter threw her arms at it, but failed to get the necessary elevation on it. Mandhana, at the cover region, jumped to reverse-cup it. 

With the bat: Mandhana's fluent half-century sets the platform for India's total

India lost their first couple of wickets cheaply before Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the ship with the 91-run partnership for the third wicket. The former smashed 68 runs off 44 balls at a strike rate of 154.55, thanks to nine boundaries and a couple of sixes.

Kaur drilled 38 runs, while the aggression in the lower order came from Richa Ghosh, who nailed 34 runs off 17 balls at a strike rate of 200, with the help of five boundaries and one six as they ended up with 170/6 in their allotted 20 overs. 

See Also: Watch: Pakistan celebrate aggressively after Jemimah Rodrigues' wicket — Women's T20 World Cup 2026

Pakistan were 53/1 in 6.2 overs before losing their next nine wickets for just 53 runs and were bundled out for 106 as India earned the victory by 64 runs.

Fan reactions: Cricket Twitter goes into a frenzy over Mandhana's all-round brilliance

Twitter went into a wild reaction over the all-round brilliance of Mandhana during the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026-

Follow the live scorecard of India vs Pakistan in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026-

India 170/6 (Smriti Mandhana 68, Harmanpreet Kaur 36, Fatima Sana 2/33) beat Pakistan 106 (Muneeba 41, Deepti Sharma 5/10) by 64 runs.