KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 11: Nepal secured third position in the ACC Women´s Twenty20 Cricket Championship after defeating China by 73 runs at the Kinrara Oval Stadium on Saturday. Winning the toss, Nepal chose to bat first and scored 103/5 in 20 overs. Nary Thapa took four wickets as China were all out for 30 runs in 10.2 overs. [break]
Nepali openers batted well with Neera Rajopadhyay getting 15 off 17 balls with three fours and Maya Rawat playing a cool-headed inning of 17 runs off 43 balls.
Captain Ritu Kanaujiya hit 15 off 22 while Nary Thapa (7), Rekha Rawal (8 not out) and Sonu Khadka (7 not out) took Nepal to a good total. China also gave away 30 extra runs.
Mei Chun Hua, Yang Yuxuan, Yu Miao and Zhou Haijie took one wicket each.
In reply, Chinese batswomen could not withstand Nepali bowlers. Rekha got two openers as China went down 6/2 before Nary Thapa´s exploit wrecked them to 15/8. Number nine player Wang Meng scored the highest seven runs for China while Sun Huan contributed six runs. Four of them failed to score a single run, while four others scored only one run each. Nepali bowlers gave 12 extra runs. Nary got four wickets giving away just 10 runs while Rekha gave away four runs for two wickets in her spell. Rubina Chhetri and Ambika Budhathoki each took a wicket.
Hong Kong win ACC T20
Hong Kong clinched the of ACC T20 Women´s Twenty20 Cricket Championship after defeating Thailand by four runs on Saturday at Kinrara Oval Stadium in Malaysia. Batting first after winning the toss, Hong Kong accumulated 106 runs in 20 overs losing four wickets. Opening duo Keenu Gill (39) and Neisha Prat (27) put on 62 runs in 11.5 overs. Connie Wong contributed unbeaten 23 runs off 21 balls.
In reply, Thailand played a good match but fell short of four runs for the win. Sonnarin Tippoch scored 37 runs and Sivaporn Kosathong contributed unbeaten 17 runs. Player of the match Keenu Gil took two scalps.
“All the hard work by the team for the past four months has paid off,” said Hong Kong´s coach Aftab Habib after the match. “It was a very hard work out there today” Hong Kong´s captain Neisha Pratt said.
Road cleared for Asian Games
After securing the third position, Nepal have qualified for the next Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou of China in 2010. Top three teams, Hong Kong, Thailand, Nepal along with the hosts China have been qualified for the Asian Games, which included cricket for the first time. Other test playing nations in Asia -- India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh -- have already been qualified for the Games.
Nary declared best bowler
Nepal´s former skipper Nary Thapa was awarded best bowler of the ACC Women´s T20 Cricket Championship after she clinched 14 wickets in four matches with an average of 2.42. The left-handed all-rounder Nary took five wickets against Bhutan, three against Thailand, two against Hong Kong and four against China. She was rested against Singapore while she didn´t bowl against Iran and Qatar.
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