By Faizan Baig
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| Pakistan women cricketers achieve record-breaking win in Asia Cup 2012 |
BEIJING, China (TheSportsNEXT) October 24, 2012: Pakistani women got their ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2012 campaign off to a rollicking start Wednesday when they battered Thailand women by 97 runs at Guanggong International Cricket Stadium in China.
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Batting first, Pakistan women scored 129 for seven opening batsman Bismah Maroof (23 from 29 – 1 four), Javeria Khan (33 from 25 – 1 four), and Asmavia Iqbal (18 not out from 14 – 1 four) all coming up with useful contributions.
Three of Pakistani batsmen, i.e. skipper Sana Mir (11 from 18 – 1 four), Javeria Khan, and Mariam Hasan (7 from 6) were caught short of their crease by the Thai women.
In reply, Thailand women were skittled for 32 runs, thanks to a five-wicket haul by Marina Iqbal (5/10) who was also declared Player of the Match for her unplayable bowling spell.
None of the Thai batsmen could manage a score of over 4 runs as three of them got out for a duck.
Qanita Jalil (4-1-5-2), Asmavia Iqbal (3-0-6-1), Sadia Yousuf (2-0-3-0), Sana Mir (2-0-3-0), and Bismah Maroof (1.1-0-3-1) all bowled exceedingly well for the Pakistani women cricket team.
In another match played on Wednesday, Bangladeshi women defeated Chinese women by six wickets with five balls to spare.
China women scored 63 for the loss of six wickets from their 20 overs and Bangladesh women scored 64 for four from 19.1 overs.
Sun Huan (29 from 39 – 1 four) was the top scorer for the hosts while Sun Meng Yao (11 from 24 – 1 four) was the only other batsman to score in double figures.
Panna Ghosh took two wickets for 11 runs while Salma Khatun (4-0-9-1) and Khadija Tul Kubra (4-1-16-1) captured one wicket apiece for Bangladesh women.
Bangladesh opener Sharmin Akhter (27 not out from 42 – 2 fours) led the chase for her side and with Farzana Haque (19 from 37 – 2 fours) and skipper Salma Khatun (10 not out from 11) making useful contributions, the Bangladesh women achieved the target with five balls to spare.
Zhou Haijie grabbed two wickets for eight runs from her four overs while Wang Meng (4-0-16-1) and Yu Miao (3.1-0-12-1) also got a wicket each for China women.
Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun was declared Player of the Match for her impressive show with bat, ball and captaincy.
