Pictures BS News Agency.
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: The Indian women's cricket team kicked off their campaign with an easy win over Thailand by 94 runs in the opening match of the Women's Asia Cup at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Deepti Sharma and Nandani Sharma took 3 wickets each to end Thailand's innings for just 65 runs. Deepti took 3 wickets in just 7 balls without conceding any runs. Deepti now has the most wickets in women's T20 cricket. N Charani took 2 wickets for 10 runs and K Gowda took 1 wicket for 26 runs. Except for Thailand's N Koncharoenkai (41), no one could reach double figures.
Thailand won the toss and elected to field. Electing to bat first, the Indian women cricketers had set a target of 160 runs against Thailand. At one point, India were 91/1. From there, the batting collapsed. The score stood at 137/9. Thailand's Suliporn Laomi took 3 wickets to break the Indian innings. Laomi returned India's top order batsman Shafali Verma (64 runs, 36 balls) to the pavilion. Laomi came close to taking a hat-trick in her third over by dismissing Shafali and Richa Ghosh in consecutive balls. Laomi initially dismissed Smriti Mandhana and Pratikha Rawal (22), who made her debut in the Indian jersey, leaving India at 101/2 in 10 overs. Shafali's stormy batting helped India post a big innings. Shafali completed her half-century in 26 balls. Mandhana scored 19 runs in 10 balls before being run out. When she was out, India was 38. India eventually scored 159 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 9 wickets.
The success of the Indian women's cricket team in the T20 format has not been very promising. They have lost 9 out of 16 matches this year. Including their premature exit from the World Cup in June. In that regard, the Women's Asia Cup is the best platform for the Indian cricket team to boost their confidence and get back into rhythm.