Nepal Women 95 for 8 (Madhu Thapa 36) beat Thailand Women 40 (Nary Thapa 4-5) by 55 runs
Scorecard
Nepal put up a strong allround performance to beat Thailand by 55 runs on the second day of the ACC women's tournament at Johor Bahru, Malaysia. They dismissed Thailand for 40 after scoring 95 for 8 in their stipulated 30 overs.
Nepal's innings was held together by Madhu Thapa (a footballer of some repute in Nepal) who came in at No. 3 and made 36 off 75 deliveries. She was strong on the drive and the pull, and solid in defence.
Wanwipa Changsamboo, with her flighted offbreaks, was the pick of the bowlers with 2-18. She found some turn on a sluggish pitch and had the ability to dip the ball down from quite a height, which had many of the Nepali batsmen confused. Sarsati B.K .was the only one who dared venture down the wicket, but she was smartly stumped by Yupa Paoklang at the moment first attempt.
Thailand were quite competitive in the field but what did cost them was the number of wides they bowled - 30 in total, and that was with relatively lenient umpiring. Yet they ended by taking four wickets in the last two overs, and went in to lunch having restricted Nepal to 95.
Thailand didn't quite have the rub of the green when they batted but Nepal's bowling was far better than their batting. Thailand's batsmen were given no room to swing their arms and the bowlers were backed up by some high-standard fielding.
Nary Thapa (an international bronze-medalist in badminton), the captain, led the way with some excellent left-arm seam bowling. Coming on at first change, Thapa took three wickets in the 11th over to reduce Thailand to 20 for 6 and the game was pretty much over. Changsamboo hobbled by cramp, played a gutsy innings to keep her side in the game, but it was never going to be enough.
Two wickets by Neera Rajoupadhyan off her first and last deliveries sealed the win for Nepal.
Seven of Nepal's players were from Nepalganj, the district that was awarded the ICC's Global Development Award for their women's cricket program last year. Thailand's cricketers were an athletic group of former softball and basketball players, six of whom were intentionally coached to be left-handed batters (as if they were 'switch-hitters' in softball).