Thailand, China lead the way

Thailand and China both gained their second impressive victories in two days in the ACC Women's Championship which is being held in Chiang Mai as they continued to look the two strongest sides in Group B.

Thailand gave a clinical performance to beat Kuwait by ten wickets in the morning match at the Royal Chiang Mai ground as they bowled out the opposition for just 17 in 14.4 overs. Sornnarin Tippoch took her tally of wickets to a remarkable 10 in two days with figures of 4 for 5 and Chaninda Suttiruang had an even better analysis as she took 4 for 3.

Thailand's openers, Pundarika Prathanmitr and Nattakan Chantham, again batted positively to reach their target in just two overs, as Thailand have not lost a wicket in two days' of cricket.

China arrived to play the afternoon match and could not quite match the high standards set by Thailand but they will still provide stiff opposition later in the tournament as they bowled out Singapore for 27 and needed only 5.1 overs to secure victory by nine wickets.

The other two sides in Group B are Iran and Qatar who were both heavily beaten on the first day, but enjoyed a more even contest at Traidhos Oval. It was the girls from Iran who came out on top by six wickets as they restricted Qatar to a total of 91 for 8 in 25 overs and Parisa Afzal saw her side home to a famous victory with an unbeaten 29.

Hong Kong are at the top of Group A after beating Malaysia by 21 runs at Gymkhana Club. They now have two wins in two matches thanks largely to the performance of Mariko Hill who followed an innings of 60* from 66 balls with figures of 3 for 30.

But Nepal may well be the team to beat in this group as they impressed in their first match of the tournament by beating a resolute Bhutan by eight wickets at Traidhos Oval. Bhutan could make only 65 for 8 in 25 and Nepal needed only 13.4 overs to clinch victory.