On the second day of International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20 Women’s World Cup Asia Region Qualifiers, there were three matches lined up. The first one up was between China and Malaysia and the latter dominated the game to register an easy win for themselves. The second match which was scheduled to play between Nepal and Hong-Kong was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Thailand beat United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 10 wickets in a rain-affected match which was reduced to 9 overs a side.
Li Haoye, the captain of the China team elected to bat first winnings the toss, however, her batters could not live up to the expectation as China were bowled out for 33 runs in 12.4 overs. Jannadiah Halim was the pick of the bowlers as she picked up three wickets giving away only 11 runs in her quota of four overs. She was well backed by Winifred Duraisingam and Zayani Syamimi who picked up 1 and 2 wickets respectively. The Malaysian better was nowhere under pressure even though lost two wickets early. Captain Duraisingam and Christina Baret were the highest run-scorers for Malaysia as they registered a seven-wicket win over the China team.
Nepal has had tough luck in the ongoing qualifiers as their first match got called off by the umpires due to adverse weather conditions followed by the second match which also got abandoned without a ball being played against the Hong Kong side, who defeated Malaysia in the opening day of the Asia qualifiers.
The rain-affected encounter between the host Thailand and UAE were reduced to 9 overs a side. Put to bat first, UAE scored 35 runs for the loss of 5 wickets to put a challenging score on the board. The left-handed opening batter Udeni Dona was the highest scorer of the side putting up 14 runs behind her name in 17 balls with a strike rate of 82.35. The right-arm medium fast bowler, Nattaya Boochatham was the standout bowler for the host Thailand as she picked up three wickets giving away only 4 runs in her quota of two overs. In reply, Thailand batters went out hard at the UAE bowlers as they crossed the winning line with 3.5 overs to spare. Opening batsman Nattakan Chantam was the star batswoman for Thailand as she scored 21 runs in 18 balls with one six to hand her team an important victory.
