United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong have secured the top two places from the Asian qualifiers as the move forward to the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifier which is scheduled to take place in Netherland in 2018. The two teams by far have been the best in the tournament and they will meet in Monday’s final, while Hong Kong will take on Nepal in the third-place play-off. Thailand will be making their third consecutive appearance in the World T20 Qualifier but UAE have qualified for the first time as they are taking part in their first ICC competition.
In the first match, UAE lost two early wickets in the second over after opting to bat first winning the toss. Esha Oza and Prijanjali Jain were dismissed by Zayani Syamimi who has been one of the best bowlers of the tournament with eight wickets in four matches. Inform Nisha Ali one again showed her class as she topped the batting chart with 36 runs from 51 balls to take her team’s total to a score of 83 at the end of 20 overs. Nur Arianna took 3 for 9 with her slow left-arm spin as only 16 runs came from the last five overs. Malaysia once again struggled with the bat as they were reduced to 32 for four at the end of 10 overs. Nisha Ali was in the action again as she bowled Mas Elysa and UAE captain Humaira Tasneem ran out her opposite number Winifred Duraisingam. Humaira scalped three wickets and Nisha finished with 2 for 6 to restrict Malaysia to a total of 49. Nisha Ali was adjudged the woman of the match for her all-round performance.
In the next match, Hong Kong lost their star players in the form of Keenu Gil and skipper Mariko Hill at the start of the match as Thailand took control of the game right from the start. The four spinners ended with a tally of 8 wickets for 20 runs in 15.5 overs as Suleeporn Laomi finished the innings with one ball to go as Hong Kong was dismissed for 34 in 19.5 overs. In reply, Thailand got off to a quick start as they reached 21 runs in just 4 overs before losing the first wicket of Nattakan Chantam. The Thailand middle-order crumbled upon as six wickets fell for just seven. Mariko Hill was on the mark as she picked 3 wickets for seven runs but Ratanaporn Padunglerd calmed all those nerves and scored the winning boundary as Thailand reached 35 for 6 in 11.4 overs to win by four wickets with 50 balls to spare.
Thailand topped the points table with nine points and will take on UAE on Monday’s final. A couple of brilliant catches and outstanding run outs and backed up accurate bowling and any one of the four bowlers with 2 for 5 could have been named the player of the match. The award went to Sornnarin Tippoch for bowling in the first half of the innings and setting an example for her team. However, the host will certainly like to improve their batting before any further contest.
Brief Scores:
UAE: 83/6 (Nisha Ali 36*) Nur Arianna Natsya 3/9 beat Malaysia (Duraisingam 10) Nisha Ali 2/6 by 34 runs.
Hong Kong: 34 all out. (Mariko Hill 10) Sornnarin Tippoch 2/5 lost to Thailand (Nattakan Chantam 12) Mariko Hill 3/17 by 4 wickets.
