Sri Lanka end Women’s Asia Cup with shock defeat to Thailand

Women's Asia Cup 2018

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Thailand women held their nerve to edge past the lSri Lanka Women in a thrilling encounter today at the Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur. Thailand won by 4 wickets in the last ball of the match leaving Sri Lanka no hope of qualifying to the final.

In a must win game for Sri Lanka, the Thai skipper Sornnarin Tippoch won the toss and invited the Lankan ladies to bat first. Today, Sri Lanka had made 2 changes for their playing XI. Teenager Harshitha Madavi replaced Nipuni Hansika while Inoka Ranaweera was back in the side, after not playing in the last game, replacing her replacement in the previous game Malsha Shehani.

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Yassoda Mendis had a new opening partner in Anushka Sanjeewani today. The pair got off to a flyer before Yasoda Mendis was dismissed by the Thai skipper Tippoch when the Lankan score was 31 in 3.2 overs. Mendis scored 22 runs in just 15 balls with 4 boundaries. Then onwards the Sri Lanka Women just kept on tottering themselves, losing wickets at regular intervals. Anushka Sanjeewani in the end slowly added a few valuable runs without any assistance until she pared up with No. 8 batter Oshadi Ranasingha. They added 22 runs for the 7th wicket. Ranasingha remained unbeaten as Sri Lanka were all out facing all 20 overs for a below-par score of 104.

Out of the 10 fallen wickets 3 were run-outs which seem to be a problem as even in the last game 2 Sri Lankan batters ll run-out. Wongpaka Liengprasert was the chief destroyer of the Lankan inning picking up 5 wickets for just 12 runs in her 4 overs.

Sri Lanka desperate for a win, didn’t get the ideal start for their total defense. Thailand scored 15 of the first over bowled by experienced bowler Udeshika Prabodani. Thailand were cruising towards victory on 43 for 1, when in-form bowler Sugandika Kumari struck in the 8th over. There weren’t any Lankan bowler who could stop Naruemol Chaiwai, who just took her team very close to an unlikely victory.

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However Nilakshi De Silva managed to get rid of Chaiwi in the 16th over when Thailand needed 27 runs in 30 balls with 9 wickets in hand. This wicket set up a really thrilling finish for the game. Sri Lanka got even closer when Sanjeewani ran out Thai wicket keeper Nannapat Koncharoenkai in the same over. Sugandika Kumari then bowled the 17th over giving away just 3 runs, which left Thailand needing 18 runs in the last 3 overs.

 

Nilakshi De Silva provided a superb 18th over giving away just 3 runs and also picking up another wicket. Wongpaka Liengprasert once again stood against the Lankan dreams and hit 10 runs in the 19th over bowled by Ranasingha, simplifying the equation to 6 in 6.

Former skipper Inoka Ranaweera was handed the responsibility of bowling the final over which she started superbly picking up a wicket. But it was Liengprasert again who held her nerve and guided Thailand to a famous victory with the assistance of Suleeporn Laomi who remained unbeaten along with player of the match Wongpaka Liengprasert.

Brief Scores:

SL Women 104 (Anushka Sanjeewani 32, Yasoda Mendis 22, Oshadi Ranasinghe 20, Wongpaka Liengprasert 5/12, Sornnarin Tippoch 2/19)

THA Women 105/6 (Naruemol Chaiwai 43, Nilakshi De Silva 2/17)

THA Women won by 4 wickets

Player of the Match: Wongpaka Liengprasert

Other Results

9th June – IND Women beat PAK Women by 7 wickets

Remaining Fixture

9th June – BAN Women v MAL Women

Points Table

TEAM M W L T N/R PT NRR
India Women 5 4 1 0 0 8 2.446
Pakistan Women 5 3 2 0 0 6 1.850
Bangladesh Women 4 3 1 0 0 6 0.454
Sri Lanka Women 5 2 3 0 0 4 0.891
Thailand Women 5 2 3 0 0 4 -1.026
Malaysia Women 4 0 4 0 0 0 -5.784