KATHMANDU, Nov 27: Nepal women’s national cricket team has failed to qualify for the global qualifiers despite defeating China by 50 runs in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifying Series Asia Region on Sunday.
At the Asian Institute of Technology ground in Bangkok, Nepal was invited to bat first after losing the toss and made a total of 102-8 in the allotted 20 overs.
Nepal’s bowling was a treat to watch in the game as the player-of-the-match Sabnam Rai picked two wickets in the first two deliveries of fourth over to complete a hat-trick, while skipper Rubina Chhetri Belbashi also pocketed three wickets. Sarita Rana Magar took two wickets and Karuna Bhandari picked a wicket for Nepal.
What Nepal can learn from China
China was all out for 52 runs playing 18.2 overs. China’s Han Lili scored the most with 15 runs off 23 balls that included two boundaries. The other double-digit hitter for China was Caiyun Zhou as she hit 10 runs off 16 balls with a four. Zhang Yanling scored nine runs off 29 balls while opener Liu Xiaonan got three runs for China. The other opener Zhang Chan, Fengfeng Song, and Mingyue Zhu all got just a run each for China.
Nepal’s skipper Rubina Chhetri Belbashi top scored with 18 runs off 14 balls that included two boundaries, while Kajal Shrestha hit 16 runs off 26 balls with a boundary.
Likewise, the other double-digit hitter for Nepal was Nary Thapa who scored 11 runs off 26 balls including a boundary for Nepal. Opener Jyoti Pandey made nine runs off 13 balls while Sarita Magar hit eight runs off 10 balls. Ritu Kanoujiya and Indu Barma both scored six runs each while Sita Rana Magar, Roma Thapa and Karuna Bhandari made four, three and two runs respectively.
Earlier, Zhang Xianggxue pocketed three wickets for China while Li Haoye, Han Lili and Mingyue Zhu picked a wicket each.
With this win, Nepal finished third with six points in the group, failing to grab the top two spots to qualify for the global qualifiers. Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) got first and second positions with nine and eight points respectively. Hong Kong finished fourth with five points and Malaysia finished fifth with two points. China stayed at the bottom of the table without even registering a single point.
Earlier on the same day, Thailand defeated Hong Kong by four wickets while UAE beat Malaysia by 34 runs.
The top two teams advance to the global qualifiers to be held in Netherlands in June next year, where Bangladesh and Ireland along with six other nations will be competing. The top two teams from the global qualifiers will then join top six ranked teams in the ICC Women’s World T20 that will be held in West Indies in November, 2018.
