'I Have No Answer for That' — Neither Does Pakistan Women's Cricket

Pakistan needed 124 to beat Bangladesh at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton. One hundred and twenty-four. In a T20. On a surface that wasn't doing anything diabolical. Muneeba Ali and Gull Feroza put on 49 for the opening stand. At the 12-over mark, Pakistan were 72 for 2. Needing just 52 off 48 balls. Six runs an over. A stroll. A formality. A match already half-won.

They scored 28 more runs in the remaining eight overs and lost six wickets doing it. Final score: 100 for 8. Defeat by 23 runs. Third consecutive World Cup loss. Tournament over. Semi-final dream dead. And Pakistan's mentor, Wahab Riaz, walked into the press conference and said the quiet part out loud.

Wahab Riaz — Pakistan's former pace spearhead, the man who bowled that spell to Shane Watson in the 2015 World Cup — was appointed as the women's team mentor with a mandate to instil fight and composure. He brought the fire. He brought the intensity. What he couldn't bring was an antidote to the one disease that has plagued Pakistan women's cricket for years: the collapse when it matters.

His post-match press conference after the Bangladesh loss wasn't just frustrated. It was resigned. This wasn't a coach reaching for tactical explanations. This was a man who'd watched the same script play out three times in ten days and was done pretending the problem was the opposition.

Bangladesh's 123 for 6 was hardly a fortress. Nigar Sultana anchored with 36 off 38, Shorna Akter blazed 39 not out off 22 at the death, and the rest contributed in bits. Pakistan's own Fatima Sana bowled superbly — 2 for 18 from 4 overs. The target was gettable. More than gettable. It was generous.

And for 12 overs, Pakistan treated it as such. Muneeba Ali (25 off 30) and Gull Feroza (23 off 18) gave Pakistan a platform. The required rate never climbed above six. But then Bangladesh's spinners, Nahida Akter and Sanjida Akter Meghla, went to work. Three wickets each. And Pakistan's middle order — the senior players Wahab was talking about — folded like origami. Shot selection vanished. Running between the wickets became a lottery. The game that should have been sealed three overs early instead ended with Pakistan stranded 24 runs short.

Wahab didn't name names. He didn't have to. When a mentor says "the senior players have to take responsibility — you cannot let it slip like this" after a match where only four batters reached double figures and captain Fatima Sana contributed just 10 with the bat, the dressing room knows exactly who he means.

And the Fatima Sana dynamic is particularly revealing. She was Pakistan's best bowler on the day — 2 for 18 from 4 overs. But Wahab's message was blunt about the team's over-reliance on one player.

What makes this World Cup exit so damning isn't the Bangladesh loss alone. It's the pattern. Three consecutive defeats. Three matches where Pakistan were competitive for a stretch and then disintegrated. Three times the same disease — a batting collapse under pressure that no amount of talent at the top can cure.

After the first loss, to India, Wahab called for patience. After the second, he spoke about execution. After the third, he was out of euphemisms. "Unfortunately, in all the last three games, we were not up to the mark and it was us who gave the games away." Not Bangladesh. Not India. Not the opposition bowlers. Us.

Lost in Pakistan's implosion is the fact that Bangladesh were brilliant when it mattered. Shorna Akter's 39 not out off 22 — the Player of the Match performance that dragged Bangladesh from a middling position to 123 — was exactly the kind of finishing innings Pakistan's middle order couldn't produce. And Nahida Akter and Sanjida Akter Meghla's combined 6-wicket haul in the middle overs was disciplined, patient, and ruthless. They didn't bowl magic. They bowled control. And Pakistan buckled.

Wahab, to his credit, acknowledged it: "The credit goes to the Bangladesh team that they kept their nerves." The subtext was obvious. Only one team kept their nerves that evening. It wasn't the one with the more expensive coaching setup.

Pakistan still have two dead rubbers left — against Australia in Leeds and the Netherlands after that. They'll play. They'll probably compete. They might even win one. But the narrative is already written. Three group-stage losses, zero points from their first three matches, and a mentor who ran out of words before the tournament even reached the knockout rounds.

Wahab Riaz came in promising to change the culture. He brought tactical acumen, international pedigree, and the weight of experience. But changing a team's mentality under pressure isn't a coaching manual problem. It's a generational one. And when the mentor himself admits he has no answer, the question becomes: who does?

"You should have taken the game two or three overs before that. The game should have been finished three overs before the time." That's not analysis. That's a man watching a car crash in slow motion, describing exactly what the driver should have done, and knowing they'll do the same thing next time.