Nepal flew to Thailand with hopes of winning first Women Tournament at senior level. The winner’s trophy has an important opportunity tagged along-a place in the World Cup Qualifiers. Tomorrow’s fixture against tournament favorites Thailand will be a massive test for Nepal. With tournament’s league design the match will likely tell where Nepal finish in the table. With World Cup Qualifier spot in bet it could even determine Nepali Women Cricket’s fate for years to come.
Thailand was the winners ACC Women’s Championship 2013 and also shield winners (5th) of T20 Women World Cup Qualifiers, and with domestic women cricket booming-the favorites for the tournament.
Nepal had faced a humiliating defeat when Nepal faced Thailand in the previous edition of the tournament. Nepal’s coach however Umesh Upaphyay opines that Nepal is equally strong if not stronger than Thailand.
Batting has always been one of the major concerns for Nepal in ACC tournament. Nepali batters will draw massive motivation from their performance in the record shattering win against Iran yesterday.
Previous Encounters (Thailand 3: Nepal 2)
Nepal and Thailand made debut in Women’s Cricket facing each other in 2007 ACC Women’s Championship. Nepal defeated Thailand by 55 runs in that match-none of the Thai batters had crossed double digits scores.
Thailand Cricket improved a great deal since then. 6 years later after that humiliating loss -the same Thailand side composed of mostly the same players from 2007 returned the favor in 2013 edition of the tournament. Nepali batters faced the same fate Thai batters did in 2007- everyone failing to cross double digits. Thailand won the match by 7 wickets chasing 38 runs.
Nepal and Thailand Women have met 3 other times in 3 different edition of ACC Women’s T20 Championship. Thailand defeated Nepal in 2009 edition by 23 runs, Nepal avenged the loss in the next edition winning by 21 runs, but Thailand had the final say as they beat Nepal in 2011 edition by 13 runs.
Players to Watch Out
Thailand Sornnarin Tippoch is considered one of thebetter batters in associate women cricket . She is always amongst runs can bowl more than handy offspin. She holds the record of highest individual socre(108) and most wickets(6) in ACC Women’s Tournament. One of the most senior player in the thai squad her contribution will be vital tomorrow. Tippoch against Nepal Bat-5,5,15,12,0 Ball-
