Bangladesh Women beat Thailand Women by eight wickets in the Women’s Asia Cup opener
The first match of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 took place between Thailand Women and Bangladesh Women at the Sylhet Outer Cricket Stadium on Saturday. Thailand Women won the toss and chose to bat but it prove to be a great decision. Thailand was rocked early on in their innings as N Koncharoenkai got dismissed by Nahida Akter and the sensation from Thailand, Natthakan Chantham played a laborious inning of 20 from 38 balls.
From then on, wickets kept falling, and Thailand were left reeling at 61-6. Coming to the last 4 wickets, Rumana Ahmed added one more to her tally. Nahida Akter and S Akter picked up 1 each. The star for Thailand was Phannita Maya, who batted at number 3 and showed a lot of resilience against a top Bangladesh bowling attack. She played a patient inning of 26 from 22 balls with three fours in it.
It was a superb performance by the Bangladesh Women’s bowling unit who picked up all ten wickets. Rumana Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers as she gave away just 9 runs from her three-over spell and also picked 3 scalps, whereas Nahida Akter and S Akter got 2 wickets each. Salma Katun also picked up the one wicket for just 18 runs in her four-over spell.
In the second innings, Shamima Sultana and Fargana Hoque aced the chase for Bangladesh as Sultana scored 49 from just 30 balls with 10 fours. Hoque played the perfect second fiddle for Sultana as she scored a vital 26 from 29 balls with 2 fours and a six and remained not out at the end.
Nigar Sultana also came in and finished the job for the Bangladesh Women as she scored the winning hit and got Bangladesh Women to the target of 82 in the fourth ball of the 16th over. The was a dominating win by Bangladesh Women over Thailand Women. Bangladesh playing in home conditions will be a force to reckon with and it will be interesting to see how far they go in the tournament.
