Hong Kong win ACC Women's T20 Championship

The Final of the ACC Women?s T20 Championship 2011 was played today at the KEC in Kuwait where Hong Kong defeated China in a thoroughly exciting final; to finish off a great tournament.

Hong Kong won the toss and elected to field. China looked to make a similar fast start to that of the group match between these two teams and the batters kept to a good run-rate in the early overs. However, in the last ball of the forth opener Zhang Mei was caught behind off Mariko Hill attempting a drive, scoring 6 off 14 balls.

It wasn?t long before the next China wicket was down, Sun Mengyao caught head high at mid on by Connie Wong, flicking off her legs, with China at 28 for 2 after 5 overs.

After a brief rain disruption China?s Sun Huan really got into a stride with the bat and started to build a platform with wickets in hand.

The breakthrough finally came for Hong Kong in the fourteenth over, Sun Huan looking for the boundary off Chan Sau Ha, found Connie Wong at mid-off, after a good knock of 24 off 39 balls; China were three wickets down for 71.

Mei Chun Hua didn?t stay at the crease for long falling LBW to Betty Chan for 1 run. Huang Zhou managed to get on strike in the last few overs, finishing on 40 runs not out .China totaled on 107-4 after a good batting display.
Hong Kong made a good start in their search of victory scoring 12 runs off the first two overs before the wicket of Keenu Gill whose middle stump was firmly pegged back by Wang Meng; after scoring 8 runs.

Opener Neisha and Connie Wong continued on to make the most of the quick start, as they forged a second-wicket partnership of 36. Wong was finally the player to go, caught behind for 18, as an ecstatic China team celebrated the highly important wicket.

Mariko Hill was the next batter in, she lasted two deliveries caught at short-extra by Wu Juan, leaving the game in a delicate position, as Hong Kong were on 51-3. The next wicket to fall was Betty Chan stumped after a beautiful delivery from Zhang Jing Jing.

Hong Kong were on 80-4 after 16 overs, with the game in finely in the balance when Chan Sau Ha drove to cover, as Zhou Haiije threw into stumps leaving the Hong Kong batter 2 yards short; the great work from the China fielder is noticed by former British Prime Minister John Major who was in the viewing gallery.

Just as Neisha passes a well-earned half century, China get the wicket they want as Zhang Mei throws in from square leg and the Hong Kong batter is out of her ground by a matter of inches, a great innings from Neisha as she scored 51 runs from 35 balls including six fours.

A truly exciting finish with Hong Kong needing 10 from the last two overs; resulted in the seventh wicket falling Dom McCusker bowled for one, as the rain lashed down in Kuwait, the chase now on eight runs from eight balls. A mighty six hit by Yip Sze Wan followed by a by and a wide, hands victory to Hong Kong by 3 wickets, with 3 balls to spare.

Neisha Pratt gets Player of the Final and gives her praise and commiserations to the China team: ?Thank you to the China team for making it such a fantastic final, it was so close and could have gone either way, you could have won it too.? Said Pratt.

Former Prime Minister John Major also has some words for both teams stating he was engrossed by proceedings: ?I was gripped by this match, so you will all definitely remember this match for a long time in your lives, it was a great game and you?ll look back on it with great fondness.?

Hong Kong retains the ACC Women's Twenty20 Championship and the worthy winners of the 2011 championship.

In the earlier game of the day the 3rd/4th playoff was also decided between Nepal and Thailand, at a cool KEC ground.

Thailand won the toss and chose to bat, only four of Thailand?s batters made any contribution, with opener Pundarika Prathanmitr top scorer with 17 runs, including two boundaries. Sornnarin Tippoch contributed 12 runs to the opening partnership including one four, before being bowled by Rashmi Sharma.

Nattakan Chantam and Nattaya Boochatham also added 10 and 15 runs respectively, including one four each. However, Nepal?s Karuna Bhandari was the star of the show with bowling figures of 5-12 runs, ripping through Thailand?s middle order preventing them from building on the good start.

There was a consistency of no scores across the lower order of Thailand?s scorecard as they finished on 76 all out after 17.5 overs.

Nepal?s reply was a case of starts with no real progress, opener Neera Rajopadhyay scoring 12 runs off 15 balls, including two fours got Nepal off to a confident start, but too many single figure contributions meant that they were always behind on the run chase.

Rashmi Sharma was going well until she edged a Nantanit Khoncham delivery to the wicketkeeper Prathanmitr, for 15 runs and captain Nary Thapa scored 9 runs before being run out by Narumon Srisuwan.

Nantanit Khoncham was the star bowler for Thailand taking 4-11 and the Player of the Match accolade, as Nepal were bowled out for 63 runs; Thailand winning by 13 runs.