Ashleigh Gardner claimed a four-wicket haul in a dominant bowling performance from Australia, who sailed past a beleaguered Pakistan in the Group A encounter at the Dubai International Stadium for their 14th straight win in T20 World Cups. Gardner's 4 for 21 was ably supported by a brace of wickets each from Georgia Wareham and Annabel Sutherland that bowled Pakistan out for 82. On the better scoring of the two venues in this 2024 Women's T20 World Cup, that target proved to be no challenge for the holders, who sauntered home with 54 balls to spare.

Pakistan were already up against it versus a team they'd never beaten in 15 attempts in this and the difficulty of their task was accentuated by the absence of captain Fatima Sana. Stand-in skipper Muneeba Ali rang in another change by replacing the out-of-form opener Gull Feroza even as Sadaf Shamas and Iram Javed made their first appearances of the tournament.

Australia's benevolence to this mismatched clash extended only as far as a couple of dropped catches. They were, however, on the money with the ball after opting to chase and quickly had their opponents at 23 for 2 after the PowerPlay. Sophie Molineux struck first by having Muneeba caught at mid-wicket. Shamas then fell to an excellent catch by Alyssa Healy standing up to the stumps to seamer Megan Schutt.

The degree of difficulty faced by Pakistan's batters is best encapsulated by how it took them 49 balls to find their first boundary - scored by Nida Dar. By then they'd also lost Sidra Amin and Omaima Sohail to Sutherland and Wareham respectively. Dar's brief enterprise was halted when she stepped out to Wareham and was stumped.

Gardner didn't get among the wickets until her third over, the 17th of the match. Iram Javed didn't get any distance on an attempted slog sweep and was caught at deep mid-wicket. Then in her final over, Gardner had Tuba Hassan stumped off the first ball before adding the wickets of Syeda Aroob and Nashra Sandhu with the last two balls of her spell. Aliya Riaz (26 off 32) was the only batter to offer any semblance of resistance to Australia's irresistible force. She scored three of the four boundaries hit by her side and was the last batter dismissed.

There were two botches to an otherwise clinical day at work for Australia. There was a shoulder dislocation to seamer Tayla Vlaeminck, who replaced Grace Harris for this game. The 25-year-old, who has been beset with injury concerns in her brief career so far, lasted only four balls into her second T20 World Cup game - her previous one came in 2018 - when she slid to field the ball but found her knee stuck in the turf and tumbled over. Australia had another injury concern late in the game when captain Healy retired hurt just before the chase was sealed with a suspected calf problem, details of which are awaited.

Barring those two concerns, Australia went about the game with ruthless efficiency to it. They matched Pakistan's tally of boundaries in just the third over of the chase with Beth Mooney taking Sadia Iqbal for three fours in an over. Even as the left-hander fell, Australia had 46 in the PowerPlay with their captain Healy now taking over the mantle of finding boundaries. She scored 37* off 23 before walking off with 13 runs to get.

Brief scores:

Pakistan 82 in 19.5 overs (Aliya Riaz 26; Ashleigh Gardner 4-21, Georgia Wareham 2-16, Annabel Sutherland 2-15) lost to Australia 83/1 in 11 over (Alyssa Healy 37*) by nine wickets.