India win by 17 runs for their sixth title triumph in the competition
India defeated Pakistan by 17 runs to retain the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup title at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground in the Thailand capital
yesterday.
The Bangkok win was Indian women’s sixth Asia Cup victory in as many meets. India last won the title at Guangzhou, in China, in 2012.
Opting to bat first, India scored 121/5 with veteran Mithali Raj scoring a brilliant unbeaten 73. Apart from her, lower-order batswoman Jhulan Goswami (17) was the other notable contributor for India.
For Pakistan, Anam Amin scalped two wickets while Sana Mir and Sadia Yousuf took one wicket each.
In reply, Pakistan started off the run chase on a good note as openers Ayesha Zafar (15) and Javeria Khan (22) scored 24 runs in four overs.
Middle order batswoman Bismah Maroof also played a crucial role by scoring a breezy 25. But apart from them no other player contributed much as they could manage only 104/6 in the allotted 20 overs.
For India, Ekta Bisht scalped two wickets while Anuja Patil, Jhulan, Shikha Pandey and Preeti Bose took a wicket each.
India refused to play a bilateral series against Pakistan between August 1 and October 31 in the sixth round of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Women’s Championship calendar recently. The ICC docked six points from India as a punishment.
BCCI congratulates team
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) congratulated the team. “On behalf of the BCCI, I would like to congratulate the Indian women’s team for their emphatic win. This is the sixth title win in Asia Cup and also proves our dominance in the region as the leading women’s team,” BCCI president Anurag Thakur said in a statement.
“The Indian team has done everyone proud by stretching India’s unbeaten run in the Asia Cup to 32 matches and taking the Asia Cup title count to six,” BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke added in the statement. “I congratulate the entire team for this outstanding achievement.”
