Thailand triumph as UAE dismissed for 50

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UAE ate up 18.1 overs to post its half-century, which came at a rather leisurely pace of 2.77 runs an over, as regular wickets stifled their innings. It was clinical bowling by Thailand, who won their first match of the WT20Q campaign and never let the UAE batters settle. Three run outs also signified their effectiveness in the field.

Thailand will now face Uganda, who beat Netherlands today, for fifth spot, while UAE will meet the hosts to battle it out for seventh.

UAE’s innings started on a sour note and things never really picked up. Chaya Mughal, who played an ill-advised cut-shot to a straight one, departed for a golden duck on the second ball of the game when Chanida Sutthiruang nipped one back in. The opening bowler got her second when she trapped Nisha Ali lbw.

Thereon, wickets stymied UAE’s flow and boundaries were hard to come by – so much, in fact, that UAE failed to register one.

Namita D'Souza gifted a simple catch to mid-off off the bowling of Nattaya Boochatham, which made it 16/3, while the ninth over brought further joy for Thailand in the form of a double run out. Esha Oza was short of her ground at the striker’s end before Chamani Seneviratna suffered the same demise two balls later at the non-striker's.

The next over Udeni Dona chipped one up to cover off the bowling of Suleeporn Laomi to make it 31/6, who claimed her second when Subha Srinivasan failed in her deployment of a sweep and was adjudged lbw. Heena Hotchandani then became the third UAE batter to be run out.

Onnicha Kamchomphu nabbed Humaria Tasneem with one that angled in before Wongpaka Liengprasert brought the innings to a premature end when Ishni Mananelage mistimed a slog to mid-off. It was an innings that offered very few positives for UAE.

In reply, Thailand's Natthakan Chantam lost her wicket early, bowled by a Srinivasan in-swinger, but UAE needed a lot more than that. Boochatham and D’Souza hung on for a while until the former was bowled around her legs by Seneviratna with Thailand 18/2.

Naruemol Chaiwai made 14, a high score in the context of the game, until she edged behind off the bowling of Srinivasan, before Nannapat Koncharoenkai and captain Somnarin Tippoch saw Thailand home in the 16th over with an undefeated 12 and 14 respectively.

Intriguingly, not a single boundary was scored in the match – a rarity in T20 cricket to say the least!