Pakistan captain Fatima Sana has been granted a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to participate in the upcoming edition of the Hundred.
Fatima to miss Birmingham’s first two games
Fatima, who Birmingham Phoenix signed during the wild-card draft, will be available to join the league from Phoenix’s third game. She will miss the first two games due to Pakistan’s ODI series against Sri Lanka, starting July 21, which are part of the Women’s Championship.
But the Hundred commitments will mean she misses the T20 leg of the tour, which is scheduled for after the ODIs. Fatima will fly to England from Hambantota following the third ODI on July 28.
Sana initially went unsold during the player auction, where she and Sadia Iqbal, the only Pakistani players on the longlist, entered the auction at a base price of £15,000 each.
That is the same amount she was later signed for in the competition, as she filled Phoenix’s fourth overseas spot, left empty by Australia’s Lucy Hamilton. Hamilton pulled out of the tournament to manage her workload after being picked up at the auction for £35,000.
Fatima’s brilliance in T20I lately
Fatima’s deal came on the back of an impressive display with both ball and bat for Pakistan in the T20 format lately. She recently scored the fastest WT20I fifty against Zimbabwe, taking only 15 balls to reach the milestone.
During the T20 World Cup, despite her team’s below-par performance in the tournament, Fatima remained a bright spot.
She finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, grabbing 11 scalps in just five innings. With the bat, she chipped in with 85 crucial runs, at times batting to help her side recover from a batting collapse.
Her best performance came against South Africa at Edgbaston, the Phoenix’s home ground, where her all-round brilliance was on full display. She scored an unbeaten 55 off 38 balls after coming into bat following a batting collapse.
With the ball, she was equally impressive, as she gave Pakistan some hope of winning the low-scoring game. Sana bagged three wickets in 2.5 overs at the bargain of just 16 runs.
Fatima will be the third Pakistani player at the Hundred this year, joining Usman Tariq in the same franchise and Abrar Ahmed, who will represent Sunrisers Leeds.
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