Hong Kong fall to Thailand in women’s cricket T20 World Cup qualifier; Nepal beat China
The Thais are now the only unbeaten team in the four-team, double round-robin competition
Hong Kong’s lost their 100 per cent record at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers Asia on Tuesday after going down by 17 runs to co-favourites Thailand at Mission Road.
Having beaten Nepal and China in their previous games, Hong Kong fell short against the strong Thais who now remain the only unbeaten side in the four-team tournament.
Captain Mariko Hill, who helped to carry Hong Kong’s batting in the first two games, fell for four against Thailand as Hong Kong struggled to keep up with the chase after doing well with the ball to restrict their opponents to 96 for six in 20 overs.
Hong Kong eventually scored 73 for eight in their innings.
“I thought our opening bowlers did really well, but in the middle we struggled a bit,” said Hill. “We started off really well. There were lots of positive intent, but at the same time we were making the same mistakes.
“We need that one solid batsman from the top five to stay until the 19th over to see off the innings, but that never really happened today.”
After winning the toss and batting, Thailand had early trouble by losing four wickets in the first seven overs for 17 runs, with Hill taking two scalps and Chan Ka-man bowling three maidens and picking up a wicket.
Thai captain Sornnarin Tippocj and Naruemol Chaiwai then took over and crafted a 63-run partnership to help their team to somewhat of a defendable total.
Hong Kong also ran into early trouble in their case with four wickets falling in nine overs as the top order failed to fire.
Keenu Gill’s 19 offered hope, along with Chloe Ip’s 14 but Hong Kong were unable to score fast enough to challenge the Thais.
Medium pacer Chanida Sutthiruang took three for 13 for Thailand with skipper Sornnarin earning the MVP award.
In the other match, Nepal earned their first win by beating China by 20 runs. Nepal scored 95 for nine in their 20 overs and restricted the Chinese to 75 for eight.
The top team after a double round robin qualify for the global World Cup qualifiers. Should the Thais finish top, the second-placed team have the consolation of qualifying for the Asian Cup to be hosted by Thailand.
