Nisha’s haul in vain as UAE lose
bangkok — A spell of 3.2-1-7-5 earned Nisha Ali her fourth player of the match award, but unfortunately UAE went down to Thailand in the final of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifying Series (Asia Region) at the Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok, on Monday.
The hosts won the toss and elected to bat but Nisha was quick to strike and remove opener Nattakan Chantam cheaply for 2. Nattaya Boochatham and Naruemol Chaiwai (12) stitched a 23-run partnership to revive Thailand’s innings before Kavisha Egodage got rid of Chaiwai.
Another crucial 30-run partnership between Boochatham (26) and Nannapat Koncharoenkai enabled Thailand reach 70 for 4 when Nisha took charge and ran through the batting with Thailand losing their last six wickets for eight runs.
However, even that target proved stiff for UAE as, apart from Roopa Nagraj (27), none of the other batswomen could get into double figures. Two run-outs — that of Nisha and Ishni Mananelage — only compounded UAE’s woes as they were restricted to 56 for 9 in 20 overs.
This is Thailand’s third successive appearance in the World T20 Qualifier but the UAE have qualified for the first time as they are taking part in their first ICC competition. The finalists will join the other finalists of the ICC qualifiers from Europe/ America, East Asia-Pacific and Africa. Also, by virtue of this achievement the UAE and Thailand will get to play in the ACC Women’s Asia Cup in Feb. 2018 alongside India, Pakistan, Lanka and Bangladesh