Women's Asia Cup T20, 2018, Round Up – Day 5

The league stage of the Women’s Asia Cup has come to an end. India Women and Bangladesh Women occupied the top two spots on the points table to qualify for the finals. These two teams will battle it out in the final on June 10, 2018, and the winner will lift the Women’s Asia Cup 2018.

Interestingly, Bangladesh Women is the only team to have defeated India Women in the Asia Cup this year. India Women will be eager to seek their revenge in the final and win the glorious cup. Pakistan Women had three wins and finished third while Sri Lanka Women and Thailand Women had 4 points each. Malaysia Women failed to win even a single game in the tournament. Here is how the games on the last day of the league stage progressed:

India Women vs Pakistan Women, 13th Match

India Women faced Pakistan Women in a do or die game. The winner of this game would proceed to the final. Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the Indian bowlers thoroughly dominated the Pakistani batswomen. Bismah Maroof and Javeria Khan who were in great form for the side were dismissed early putting the team in a spot of bother. Sana Mir with 20 runs off 38 balls was the leading scorer while Pakistan only managed to put on 72 runs on the board for the loss of 7 wickets.

While chasing this small total, Pakistan put India on the backfoot early on in the game. Skipper Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma were back in the hut for a duck and India were 5/2 within 3 overs. However, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur put the innings back on track. Mandhana got out on 38. But, Kaur stayed there till the end and scored 34 runs. India won the game by 7 wickets and Ekta Bisht, who picked up 3 scalps was the ‘Player of the Match’.

Sri Lanka Women vs Thailand Women, 14th Match

Thailand Women stunned Sri Lanka Women in this game. After winning the toss, they put Sri Lanka into bat first. It was yet again the Sri Lankan openers who put up a good show and the middle order failed. Y Mendis couldn’t capitalise on the start and got out after scoring 22. Anushka Sanjeewani scored 32 while O Ranasinghe scored 20. They put on 104 runs in their 20 overs.

Thailand Women were very clinical in the chase. They never batted so well thus far in the tournament. Opener Chaiwai scored 43 runs and played a major role in the win. Boochatham scored 19 runs as Thailand Women won the game by four wickets. The game went down till the last over and the winning runs were only scored off the final ball of the match.

Bangladesh Women vs Malaysia Women, 15th Match

It was quite obvious that Bangladesh would win this game. However, Malaysia Women will have to be credited for the fight they put in with the bat. Bangladesh scored 130 in 20 overs for the loss of 4 wickets. Shamima Sultana and Ayasha Rahman carried on with their good form as they scored 43 and 31 respectively. Their key batswoman, Nigar Sultana didn’t bat in this game and they gave the chances to the other batswomen in the side. Fahima Khatun scored 26 off 12 balls to provide the final flourish.

For the first time in five games in this tournament, Malaysia Women cross 50 runs in their innings. Yusrina Yaakop, Mas Elysa and Winifred Duraisingam scored 42 runs combined as Malaysia managed to get to 60 runs in their quota of 20 overs. Winifred with 17 runs was the highest run scorer while Rumana Ahmed picked 3 wickets.

Brief Scores

India Women won by 7 wickets against Pakistan Women

Pakistan Women: 72/7 in 20 overs (Sana Mir 20*, Nahida Khan 18, Ekta Bisht 3/14)
India Women: 75/3 in 16.1 overs (Smriti Mandhana 38, Harmanpreet Kaur 34*, Anam Amin 2/10)

Thailand Women won by 4 wickets against Sri Lanka Women

Sri Lanka Women: 104/10  in 20 overs (Anushka Sanjeewani 32, Y Mendis 22, Tippoch 2/19)
Thailand Women: 105/6 in 20 overs (Chaiwai 43, Boochatham 19, Nilakshi de Silva 2/17)

Bangladesh Women won by 70 runs against Malaysia Women

Bangladesh Women: 130/4 in 20 overs (Shamima Sultana 43, Ayasha Rahman 31, Winifred Duraisingam 2/19)
Thailand Women: 60/9 in 20 overs (Winifred Duraisingam 17, Mas Elysa 14, Rumana Ahmed 3/8)