India Women’s team qualified for the finals of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 after beating Thailand in the semi-finals. Shafali Verma’s excellent knock of 42 along with Deepti Sharma’s three-wicket haul guided India to a 74-run win over Thailand at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Thursday. With the victory over Thailand, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian side will now face the winner of semi-final 2 (Pakistan vs Sri Lanka) on Saturday for the title.
It is the 8th consecutive win for India to the semi-finals of the Women’s Asia Cup. The Women in Blue have the highest record of wins in the Asia Cup. Out of the 7 tournaments played, India has a record of 6 wins. During the 7th Women’s Asia Cup tournament, Bangladesh beat the six-time winner India by 3 wickets in the final to clinch their first Asia Cup title.
Earlier in the semi-final against Thailand, team India was sent to bat first, but fared decently to post a good total on the scoreboard on a slowish surface. India got off to a flying start with the openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana as they provide a solid start to the team by hammering Thailand bowlers all around the ground. Shafali scored an outstanding 42 off 28 balls with five boundaries and a six. Her astonishing performance leads her to win the Player-of-the-match award. Even though the opener Smriti Mandhana (13/14) couldn’t create much impact on the game, the blistering partnership added 34 runs.
Jemimah Rodrigues (27 off 26) joined with Shafali after Mandhana to keep the momentum going. But with the score at 67/2, Sornnarin Tippoch gave India a big blow by dismissing Shafali. Then the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur came to the crease and scored 36 runs off 30 deliveries.
Chasing the target of 149 runs, Thailand got off to a bad start. Deepti Sharma easily dismissed Thai opener Nannapat Koncharoenkai for five runs in the 3rd over itself. In the 5th over, Deepti then sends back Natthakan Chantam (4/14). Then Renuka Singh broke the middle order by dismissing Chanida Sutthiruang.
After 15 overs, Thailand just reached 50 with four wickets down. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rajeshwari Gayakwas’s back-to-back blows at Naruemol Chaiwai for 21 and Phannita Maya for zero leave Thailand at 72/8.
Indian bowlers then restricted Thai batters in the last two overs without scoring runs and they ended up at 74/9. Thai batting once again let them down and they lost the game completely.
For Thailand, both Naruemol Chaiwai and Nattaya Boochatham scored 21 runs which remained the highest score.
As expected, Indian bowlers proved to be too hot to handle for Thailand. Deepti Sharma struck them thrice and ended with brilliant figures of 3/7. Deepti can bowl in any situation in the game to lead the team to win the match. Rajeshwari Gayakwad also picked up two wickets in the game.
India batted very well against a good bowling attack and secured a 74-run win in the match to go for the finals to once again claim the title of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022.
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