Women's Asia Cup 2022: Team India crush Thailand to become the first team to qualify for the semi-final encounter

Team India completed a crushing victory over Thailand in its last group-stage encounter played on October 10 (Monday). The Women in Blue will now turn its focus on the semi-final clash to march ahead in the competition. 

Speaking about the game against Thailand, India won the toss and opted to have a bowl first. The batting started poorly as they lost the first wicket in the third over. Natthakan Chantham was cleaned up by spinner Deepti Sharma who was getting some unbelievable turn from the wicket. 

The skipper Naruemol Chaiwai also struggled with the bat, she took up 14 deliveries and scored only three runs before getting run out. It was a disastrous batting performance from the Thailand side as they went on to lose eight wickets between 20 and 28 runs. 

Some bizarre running also did not help the Thailand cause either. Apart from the skipper Chaiwai, opener Nannapat Koncharoenkai who was also the high run-getter for his team was caught short of her ground by Deepti. The right-handed batter scored 12 runs in 19 balls and hit one boundary. 

Apart from Nannapat, none of the other Thailand batters managed to reach the double-digit score as the batting team got bundled out for a mere 37 runs in 15.1 overs. 

Sneh Rana grabbed three wickets for her side

Apart from Deepti who took two wickets, Sneh Rana was also excellent with the ball as she gave away only nine runs in her four-over quota and took three vital wickets. Rajeshwari Gayakwad (two wickets) and Meghna Singh (one wicket) were also good in their bowling performance. 

Chasing a total of 38 runs, it was a stroll in the park for the Indian batters as opener Sabbhineni Meghana scored an unbeaten 20 runs with her partner Pooja Vastrakar also scoring 12* runs as the Women in Blue completed the chase within the field restrictions. The batting team lost only one wicket in form of Shafali Verma who got out after scoring eight runs.