THAILAND WIN THE WOMEN’S T20 SMASH AS THEY BEAT NEPAL IN THE FINAL

Thailand have been crowned champions of the inaugural Thailand Women’s T20 Smash after they overwhelmed Nepal by 70 runs in the final at TCG as the team gave a near perfect performance to confirm their ascendancy in Asia at this level.
Thailand and Nepal had been the dominant teams in the tournament as both won their four group matches and gained convincing victories in the semi-finals so the final was expected to be a good contest. Instead Thailand proved far too good for their closest rivals after Nepal had won the toss and put Thailand in to bat.
Nattakan Chantham played the innings of her life as she batted through the 20 overs to score an unbeaten 69 from 67 balls with four boundaries. She started slowly before accelerating as she unleashed some powerful shots and shared a superb opening partnership of 94 with Naruemol Chaiwai who made 27 from 42 balls. The icing on the cake was applied by Chanida Sutthiruang who hit 19 from 11 balls as Thailand made an imposing total of 121 for 1.
Nepal lost two wickets in the first two overs and never recovered as captain Sornnarin Tippoch bowled her four overs for just six runs and claimed two wickets and Suleeporn Laomi took three wickets for 15 as Nepal were bowled out for 51.
Thailand had put their reputation as the highest ranked country in the competition on the line but had responded magnificently with six wins out of six.
Play-off finals were also played for the lower positions as UAE finished third by beating Indonesia by nine wickets; Hong Kong claimed fifth place as they overcame Myanmar by the same margin and Malaysia finished seventh after beating Thailand A by 84 runs.
Most of these teams will be back in action in February when the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier will be held in Bangkok and Thailand will be looking to continue their wonderful run of success.