THAILAND WIN THIRD PLACE PLAY-OFF TO FINISH ASIA QUALIFIER ON A HIGH
August 4, 2026
The Thailand women’s team are currently on tour to Port Moresby where they are playing two T20I matches and three 50-over matches against Papua New Guinea who are an improving country at Associate level so will provide a good test for Thailand who won the ACC Women’s Premier Cup in their previous tournament.
The T20I series was played on the 10th and 11th of August and Thailand looked to be on the way to victory in the first match after scoring 110 for 5 with Phannita Maya hitting 35 and Nannapat Khoncharoenkai 30 as they made up for the absence of Natthakan Chantham who is playing club cricket in the UK.
PNG made a fast start to their reply as Konio Oala hit three sixes in her 26 but the Thailand off-spinners restored control and PNG’s required run-rate began to rise. Suddenly Pauke Siake who came in with four wickets down hit her first two balls for four and we were in for a tight finish.
Thipatcha Putthawong bowled a brilliant 19th over as she took a wicket and conceded only one run so that 10 runs were needed from the final over which was bowled by Phannita Maya. Siake was on strike but surely she couldn’t score all the runs herself. Remarkably she hit a boundary and ran three twos to take her side to victory by five wickets from the last ball.
There were plenty of lessons to be learnt by Thailand and they made a strong start to the second match as PNG collapsed to 16 for 5. Maya reacted superbly to her trauma the previous day by taking three wickets in her first two overs and Putthawong contributed two more wickets to take her level with Deepthi Sharma of India on 168 T20I wickets which is a world record.
PNG recovered well to reach 87 for 9 as Tanya Ruma hit 35 but Thailand would need only 88 to square the series. Maya was out in the first over but that brought Nannapat to the crease and she batted fluently to make 46 from 49 balls to take her side to the brink of victory. Thailand won by six wickets as they reached 88 for 4 in 18.2 overs and the two-match T20I series was shared.
Three ODIs are played on Thursday, Saturday and Monday and it is important that Thailand win the series after a long break from international 50-over cricket as they need to keep their place among the highest ranked Associate teams.
Written By: Richard Lockwood