14 January, 2019 Bangkok – Cricket is most popular game in south asia but women’s cricket is not so hot specially for Nepalese, Nepal has very short history of playing cricket even for men’s but achieved marvelous records in sort span of time. Similarly Nepal made it to the semi-final of Thailand Women’s Twenty20 Smash cricket competition after registering a six-wicket win over United Arab Emirates at the Asia Institute of Technology Cricket Ground on Monday.

Nepal registered their third consecutive victory in the tournament, against the UAE, deemed one of the strong teams in the competition, by chasing the 106-run target in the 19th over, losing just four wickets.

Nepali openers Sita Rana Magar (37 runs) and Kajal Shrestha (25 runs) established a strong 61-run first wicket partnership to put Nepal in a strong position for the win.

Nepal lost their fourth wicket in the 17th over, following the fall of wickets of Dolly Thapa and Indu Varma for 9 and 13 runs respectively.

Skipper Rubina Chhetri (10 runs) and Neri Thapa (6runs) made a partnership of 18 runs to give victory to Nepal.

Electing to bat first, UAE were restricted for 105 runs with the loss of six wickets.

For Nepal, bowlers Sonu Khadka, Sita Rana Magar and Karuna Bhandari took one wicket each.

Nepal have garnered maximum six points after three matches and is at the top of the Group ‘A’ table. UAE with two wins and a loss are at second position with 4 points while Malaysia, after two matches, have garnered 2 points and China and Thailand are at the bottom of the table.

Malaysia and UAE will take on each other on Tuesday. If UAE win against Malaysia they will reach the semifinal along with Nepal. However, if UAE lose then they will have to wait for the results of the final match in the group stage between China and Malaysia.

The Nepali team had hammered China by 10 wickets in the first Group ‘A’ game on Saturday and eased to a six-wicket win over Malaysia in their second match played at the Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok on Sunday.

Top two teams from each of two pools qualify for the semi-finals. Group ‘B’ consists of hosts Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Bhutan and Myanmar. The Twenty20 Smash is Nepal’s first international outing after the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifying Series Asia Region in Thailand in November last year.

The Twenty20 Smash is part of Nepali team’s preparation for the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup Asia Qualifier, which is scheduled for February 18-27 in Thailand. Only the winner of the round-robin league Asia Qualifier earn ticket to the Global Qualifier of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup and the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2020.