THAILAND WIN FIRST MATCH AT WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
Thailand were the day’s first winners at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier as they restricted Kuwait to 56 for 8 in 20 overs at TCG and reached their target in 9 overs. Thailand won the toss and chose to field first and initially tied down the Kuwait batters so they only made 14 for 1 in the 6-over powerplay.
Thipatcha Putthawong and Phannita Maya both took two wickets in an over as Kuwait collapsed to 38 for 8 in the 15th over. Thailand were sharp in the field with two direct hits bringing run outs but Kuwait were able to bat out the 20 overs to make 56 for 8.
Sunida Chaturongrattana of Thailand plays a shot during match 1 of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier between Thailand Women and Kuwait Women held at the Terdthai Cricket Ground, Bangkok on the 9th May 2025.
Photo by Sameer G. Bhalekar / CREIMAS for International Cricket Council
Openers Aphisara Suwanchonrathi and Sunida Chaturongrattana shared a stand of 47 but two wickets were lost as Thailand neared victory. The comfortable win was achieved by eight wickets in 9 overs and Thailand moved to the top of Group A.
UAE were also impressive winners thanks to Katie Thompson has just broken into the UAE T20 team after playing for Yorkshire a decade ago before moving to Dubai. She celebrated her first appearance in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup by taking figures of 4 for 7 against Malaysia at AIT and this included three wickets in her first over. UAE’s three left-arm slow bowlers shared seven wickets and keeper Theerta Satish claimed four stumpings and this could prove a useful combination later in the tournament.
Malaysia were limited to a total of 30 for 8 in seven overs as play only got underway at at 345 but the wait was worthwhile for Thompson who was named player of the match for her efforts as UAE won by nine wickets as they made 33 for 1 in 4.3 overs to go to the top of Group B.
The earlier match at AIT was completely washed out as heavy rain yesterday afternoon had left parts of the ground waterlogged and Nepal and Hong Kong, China took a point apiece in Group C despite some hard work from the ground staff and at least there was some exciting play in the late afternoon.
Even with the late start at AIT the tournament is taking shape with the two top seeded teams Thailand and UAE taking commanding leads at the top of their groups to give them both an early advantage in the race to reach the Super Three where the top three teams will play each other to decide the two teams who will play in the global qualifier.