China were bowled out for 14, the lowest women's T20I total ever, sinking to a 189-run defeat against UAE on Sunday. The margin of victory was the largest ever in women's T20Is, pushing Namibia's defeat of Lesotho by 179 runs in August 2018 to second place.
UAE had elected to bat first in a Group B game at the ongoing Thailand Women's T20 Smash, a 10-team tournament underway in Bangkok, and put on 203 for 3. China's reply lasted only 48 minutes and 10 overs, and featured six ducks with a top score of four.
The only ones to get off the mark were opener Zhang Chan (2), wicketkeeper Zhang Yanling (3), No. 4 Hin Lili (4) and Zhou Ying (3), as China slumped to 12 for 6 in 7.3 overs. In the next over, Ishni Mananelage struck thrice in the first four balls to hasten a swift end.
China's brief outing with the bat came in response to UAE's highest T20I total, which was underpinned by wicketkeeper-batsman Esha Oza's 121-run opening stand with Chaya Mughal. Oza, the 20-year-old right-hand batsman, smashed a personal best of 82 off 62 balls, also the highest T20I score by a UAE woman. After Mughal fell for a 38-ball 33 in the 14th over, Kavisha Kumari and Namita DSouza blasted a 51-run third-wicket stand off 18 balls, as five of the seven bowlers used by China conceded over 10 runs per over.
The tournament, which also features other fringe women's international sides such as Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bhutan, Indonesia and Myanmar, along with a Thailand A team, is to provide much-needed game-time to the countries ahead of the ICC Women's 2020 World Cup Qualifiers.
Last year, the ICC ruled that all Twenty20 matches between member nations would have international status, with a view to using the T20 format to globalise the game across both men's and women's cricket. Although the governing body had initially set July 1, 2018, for the decision to come into effect for women's matches, all matches at the women's Asia Cup in June, too, were retrospectively granted international status. For the men's teams, all matches between ICC members were to be awarded T20I status from January 1, 2019, onwards, following the cut-off point for qualification to the 2020 T20 World Cup.