The recent performance of Pakistan women’s ODI series at PCB’s off shore venue Sharjah has again put the limelight on the women players who recently defended their Asian Gold medal and gave the country its only gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games.

For a developing side which has seen its share of ups and down, one might be tempted to attribute this victory to just another lucky stroke. But the figures and facts have their own story to tell – a story of hope, a story of struggle and a story of a team that seems to be growing from strength to strength.

Pakistan women won all the three ODI and clean swept the ODI series against Sri Lanka. These victories were not just the result of individual performances but were charted on over all team performances as well.

The first ODI saw the opening pair Marina and Javeria Khan put up a  good opening partnership in response to a decent score of 178 by the touring side and also the middle and lower order all-rounders Nida Dar and Asmavia Iqbal chipping in their bits to win the match by 5 wickets.

Marina Iqbal scored her career best 69 in this opening match. Due credit goes to the bowlers for the win in the second ODI where the team had posted a low score and the game was in favor of Srilanka till the middle overs, but a quick flurry of 4 wickets by Sadia Yousaf, Bismah and Sana Mir in a span of 5.3 turned the match completely.

The third ODI where the Sri Lankans posted an impressive target of 242 with the help of 99 runs from Skipper Chamari Attapattu, the Pakistanis outdid themselves by successfully chasing their so far highest target of 242 with 16 balls to spare.

Javeria Khan scored her first ODI century and personal best 133 not out while skipper Sana Mir scored an unbeaten 51 - her first half century. The same ODI saw Mir scoring team’s highest unbeaten partnership of 128 runs with opener Javeria Khan.

Bismah Maroof generally known for her skills with the bat proved to be a useful wicket picker taking four wickets in these ODI matches.

From being a team that is predominantly known for its bowling attack, the batting line up and the fielding of the team has seen marked improvement under Coach Mohtashim Rashid’s guidance. The team not only survived nerve rattling pressures of chasing high scores but changed the outcome of games for which previously one would have simply written them off.

With these three back to back win Pakistan has gained useful points and moved up in the ICC World Cup point tally. According to ICC Championship framework -Out of the 8 teams, the top 4 teams would be automatically qualifying for the England World Cup in 2017 and the lower four would have to undergo a World Cup Qualifier series in 2017. Each team will be playing a set of 3 ODIs against other seven team for the final qualifying four list.

After losing all the matches against Australia in the first phase of ICC Women’s Championship, the team which was languishing in lower rungs of ICC championship point tally has now leaped to 4th position after this ODI Series and stands at par with South Africa and West Indies -in terms of having won 3 matches off the 6 matches and Australia is at the top having won all the 6 matches it played.

Even in the T20 series which they lost by 2-1, the girls showed their fighting spirit. Skipper Sana Mir hit gold with her hat-trick during the second T20. Not only did she joined the elite list of bowlers with a hat-trick but scored her highest 48* in T20. She is now the first skipper bowler to have a hat-trick and 5th bowler and 2nd Pakistani bowler to register a hat-trick after pacer Asmavia Iqbal.

Sana Mir’s hat-trick came in the 13th over where she successfully removed Ama Kanchana, Inoka Ranaweera and Maduri Sammudika in first three deliveries and lead the team to victory with her 4 wicket spell.

She dedicated this performance to the brave kids and people who lost their lives in Peshawar terror attack and said that "My girls inspire me to improve myself each day. The pressure the team built during the bowling performance helped me achieve this feat.

I would like to thank my parents for supporting me and my Coach Sir Mohtashim for helping me with the variations in my bowling. I am really proud of the girls and the cricket we have been playing".

Perhaps credit is due to the PCB also for providing a nurturing environment to the players. From giving to centralized contract to providing new formats at domestic level, and from providing off shore venues and International tours to rewarding performance and identifying talent, PCB’s initiatives are paying off. This is reflected in the players as well as overall team performances.