CAREER BEST FIGURES FOR THAILAND’S THIPATCHA BUT SCOTLAND WIN AGAIN

CAREER BEST FIGURES FOR THAILAND’S THIPATCHA BUT SCOTLAND WIN AGAIN

Day five of the ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy saw wins for Scotland, Thailand, UAE and Netherlands as Scotland remained two points ahead of Thailand in the table as they made it five wins out of five but they were severely tested by Papua New Guinea.

The outstanding individual performance of the day came from Thailand’s 21-year-old left-arm spinner who returned career best figures of five for six as Thailand beat Uganda by eight wickets in the morning match at AIT. For a girl of her age, she now has a remarkable 119 wickets in women’s T20Is in her 80 matches with a bowling average under 10 which puts her top of the list in women’s cricket for bowlers with more than 100 T20I wickets.

Thipatcha claimed her first three wickets in her opening spell with Chanida Sutthiruang taking a brilliant slip catch after her earlier wickets had come caught at square leg and lbw. Saved until the end of the innings, she took two more wickets in three balls to another catch and another lbw. She is the first bowler to take five wickets in an innings in the ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy and she is the perfect example of an emerging cricketer who is supreme at this level of cricket.

Uganda were bowled out for 55 as Sunida Chaturongrattana claimed two more wickets to give her 11 in the tournament just one ahead of Thipatcha on 10 and Thailand knocked off the runs in nine overs as Nattaya Boochatham hit 24 and Nannapat Khoncharoenkai made an unbeaten 28 as they made 58 for 2 to gain their fourth win of the tournament.

Tanzania against United Arab Emirates at TCG also saw an early finish as UAE won by 7 wickets in just 7.1 overs after they had bowled out Tanzania for 46 in 16.5 overs. Neema Pius was the only batter to reach double figures for Tanzania as Vaishave Mahesh tok 3 for 7. Esha Oza hit 28 from 16 balls with five boundaries as UAE continued to hold on to third place in the table.

In the afternoon, Scotland were looking to make it a perfect five wins against Papua New Guinea at AIT while Netherlands were hoping to fight back from the previous day’s defeat against PNG to remain in the top half of the table when they faced Namibia at TCG.

Netherlands had narrowly lost to PNG when they finished eight runs short of PNG’s total of 126 for 2 and they performed much better with both bat and ball against Namibia as they made the highest total of the tournament as they reached 164 for 6 in 20 overs. Iris Zwilling was promoted to open so that Sterre Kalis could bat at number four so this meant the Dutch had a strong middle-order with Babette de Leede making 39 from 34 balls with six fours and Kalis herself hitting 47 from 38 balls with 7 fours.

Namibia did their best to chase a stiff target as Yasmeen Khan raced to 41 from 15 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes as the powerplay was action-packed as Namibia made 63 for 4 in the first six overs. Off-spinner Frederique Overdijk claimed three wickets in an over and finished with figures of 4 for 18 and Caroline de Lange claimed 3 for 11 as Namibia were dismissed for 113 in 16.2 overs. Netherlands gained their third win of the tournament to remain in fourth place in the table.

The last match to finish was a thrilling encounter between Papua New Guinea and Scotland and the unbeaten leaders were put under pressure by PNG throughout the afternoon at AIT. PNG looked set to make a big total as Hellen Doriga played a fantastic innings of 63 in 51 balls as she hit 9 fours as PNG lost their third wicket for 100 after 15 overs when Doriga was out bowled by Priyanaz Chatterji.

Chloe Abel then transformed the match by bowling a triple wicket maiden as PNG contrived to lose a total of four wickets on the same score and they limped to a final total of 118 for 8 as Abel became the second bowler to claim a five-wicket haul in the tournament with figures of 5 fir 13.

Scotland would have been relieved not to be chasing a higher target as they did find runs hard to come by from the start of their innings. Darcey Carter reached 30 from 41 balls before being run out and Ellen Watson contributed 26 from 32 balls, but there was still plenty to do for the experienced skipper Sarah Bryce as 44 were required from the last five overs.

Eight were still needed from the final over but it was left to Rachel Slater to hit the fifth ball to the boundary to clinch victory by six wickets with a ball to spare. Bryce made an unbeaten 39 from 29 balls as Scotland clinched their fifth victory to stay two points clear of Thailand at the top of the table but Thailand now have a superior run-rate with two rounds of matches left to play.

The inaugural ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy still seems set for an exciting conclusion with matches played on 28^th and 30^th November and Scotland facing Thailand on the last day.