Womens Asia Cup T20, 2018, Round Up - Day 1

The Women’s Asia Cup T20, 2018 kicked off this morning in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia. All the six teams participating in the Asia Cup played a game on an opening day. The tournament started off with the match between India Women and Malaysia Women at 7 AM IST. At the same time, the second match of the tournament between Bangladesh Women and Sri Lanka Women also kicked off.

The third game of the day between Pakistan Women and Thailand Women started off at 11 AM IST. India is currently the leader of the points table and their NRR is an unbelievable +7.100. All the teams will play again tomorrow in three different games and then will take a one-day break. The first day of the Women’s Asia Cup T20 provided some great entertainment to the fans. Here is a brief look at how these games progressed:

India Women vs Malaysia Women, 1st Match

India Women went into this tournament as one of the favourites to lift the cup. They proved how dominant a side they were in this game and were clinical in all three departments of the game. Mithali Raj won the toss at the Kinrara Academy Oval and opted to bat first.

Mithali Raj opened the innings alongside Smriti Mandhana. Mandhana’s wicket fell in the second over itself and the team was down to 35/2 just in the sixth over. But then, Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur took control and build a nice partnership. Mithali proved why she is regarded as one of the best batswomen as she scored 97 off 69 balls and remained not out. Kaur was run out when she was on 32 and Deepti Sharma played a handy cameo of 18 towards the end.

It was never going to be easy for the Malaysia Women to chase down 170. Adding to their woes, the bowlers were absolutely brutal and didn’t let their foot off the pedal. Pooja Vastrakar picked 3 wickets while Anuja Patil and Poonam Yadav picked 2 wickets each. The Malaysia women were bowled out for just 27 as India won the game by a mammoth 142 runs.

Bangladesh Women vs Sri Lanka Women, 2nd Match

In the second match of the Asia Cup between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the Lankan women opted to bowl after winning the toss at the Royal Selangor Club. The Lankan women were on the top of their game and bowled beautifully. They never let Bangladesh settle at any point in time as the Bangla team was bowled out for just 63. Sugandika Kumari picked 3 wickets while Prabodhani, O Ranasinghe, Ranaweera picked up two wickets each. Opener Ayasha Rahman was the top scorer of the innings with 11 runs.

Sri Lanka got a good opening stand of 39 runs. Their openers Y Mendis and Hansika scored 20 and 23 respectively. Sri Lanka had no chance of losing the game from there on. Although they lost another two quick wickets after the openers departed, the asking rate was never high and they got there with six wickets to spare.

Pakistan Women vs Thailand Women, 3rd Match

In the third game of the Women’s Asia Cup T20, Pakistan Women faced off Thailand Women. Thailand Women won the toss and opted to bat first against the fierce Pakistan team. However, the move didn’t work out great for them as they only managed to put on just 67 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs.

Chasing this mere total down, Pakistan Women got off to a great start. Although they lost two wickets during the course of the chase, they never seemed to be troubled. Their opener Nahida Khan played a brilliant inning and stayed through until the end to take her team home. She scored 38 runs off 41 balls. Although the other opener Muneeba Ali and skipper Bismah Maroof couldn’t make much of an impact, Javeria Khan ensured that the side didn’t lose any wickets further as he hit 18 off 19 balls as Pakistan Women won by 8 wickets.

Brief Scores

India Women won by 142 runs against Malaysia Women

India Women: 169/3 in 20 Overs (Mithali Raj 97*, Harmanpreet Kaur 32,  Noor Hayati Zakaria 1/30)
Malaysia Women: 27/10 in 13.4 Overs (Sasha Azmi 9, Winifred Duraisingam 5, Pooja Vastrakrar 3/6)

Sri Lanka Women won by 6 wickets against Bangladesh Women

Bangladesh Women: 63/10 in 19.3 Overs (Ayasha Rahman 11, Nigar Sultana 10, Sugandika Kumari 3/17)

Sri Lanka Women: 64/4 in 14.3 Overs (Nipuni Hansika 23, Y Mendis 20, Khadija Tul Kubra 3/13)

Pakistan Women won by 8 wickets against Thailand Women

Thailand Women: 67/8 in 20 Overs (Nattakan Chantam 17, Sornnarin Tippoch 17, Sana Mir 2/7)

Pakistan Women: 70/2 in 13.1 Overs (Nahida Khan 38*, Javeria Khan 18*, Sornnarin Tippoch 1/9)

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