Another strong all-round performance took India to their second win in as many days – a 66-run drubbing of Thailand – in the Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup being played in Malaysia on Monday 4 June.
Mona Meshram hit 32 in 45 balls from the top of the order and shared a 53-run first-wicket stand with Smriti Mandhana (29 in 22) to set the platform for India, and with Anuja Patil (22 in 21) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (27* in 17) chipping in, India scored 132/4 after being asked to bat.
Thailand’s chase never really took off, the 31-run stand for the second wicket between Naruemol Chaiwai and Nattaya Boochatham the best phase in their innings, which ended at 66/8.
Unfortunately for Thailand, who had lost their opening game by eight wickets to Pakistan, Chaiwai and Boochatham brought runs but also ate up balls – Chaiwai’s 14 runs coming off 28 balls and the 21 Boochatham scored taking 40 balls.
Chanida Sutthiruang, the No.7 batter who scored a 16-ball 12, was the only other Thailand player to reach double-figures as Kaur followed up her quick runs with a spell of 3-0-11-3 to earn the Player of the Match award. Deepti Sharma (2/16), Pooja Vastrakar (1/5) and Poonam Yadav (1/15) were the other wicket-takers for India.
Mona Meshram top scored for India with a 45-ball 32.
Earlier, Meshram struck two fours in her handy effort from the top of the order even though it was a slow innings considering the format, but all of Mandhana, Patil, Kaur and Vastrakar, who slammed a boundary in her two-ball innings, scored at over a run a ball.
For Thailand, Wongpaka Liengprasert, the off-spinner, was the best of the lot in a good bowling performance, returning 2/16.
India next play Bangladesh, while Thailand go up against Malaysia in the third day of action on 6 June.
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