The Indian women’s team defeated Thailand by a big margin in the first semi-finals of the 2022 Women’s Asia Cup played at Sylhet International Cricket Ground, Sylhet on 13th October.
Thailand captain Chaiwai won the toss and decided to field first. Shafali Verma survived two chances with a stump miss and a catch dropped. Verma put enough pressure on the Thailand bowling line. On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana also showed intent before providing a simple catch to Kamchomphu with full-toss delivery. Mandhana and Verma added 38 runs for the opening wicket laying a strong foundation for a decent total. At the end of the first six overs, Indian women made 47 for 1.
Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur showed intent with lovely shots putting the inexperienced Thailand team under pressure. Putthawong struck for Thailand dismissing Rodrigues with a simple catch to Kanoh at long-on. Kaur and Rodrigues added 42 runs for the 3rd wicket. The Thailand bowlers kept a tight leash on Indian batters before Pooja Vastrakar added vital runs to help the Indian team post 148 for 6 in 20 overs.
Thailand batters struggled with the top-quality bowling of the Indian team. Deepti Sharma was the pick of bowlers with 3 wickets for just 7 including the big wicket of Chantam. After that, the Indian team never allowed the Thai batters to score runs easily and restricted them to just 74 for 9. As a result, the Indian team won the match by 74 runs qualifying for the 8th finals in Women’s Asia Cup history.
50 Over format
The first Women’s Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka in April 2004. Only India and Sri Lanka took part in that tournament playing the five-match ODI series. Indian team won all five matches winning Asia Cup.
The second Women’s Asia Cup was held in December 2005 and January 2006 in Karachi. This time, Pakistan took part as the Indian team won the tournament defeating Sri Lanka by 97 runs.
Only three teams took part in the 3rd edition of the Women’s Asia Cup in December 2006. Indian team won the tournament beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in Jaipur.
Indian team won the tournament again defeating Sri Lanka by 177 runs. The tournament was played in Sri Lanka in 2008.
20 over format
From the 2012 edition onwards, the tournament was played in the T20I format. A total of 8 teams took part divided into two groups.
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