Thailand qualify for Women's T20 World Cup

Sports Desk: For those who have not kept a close eye on women's cricket below the top tier, there will be an eye-catching inclusion when the draw for the Women's T20 World Cup rolls around. For the first time in their history, Thailand have qualified for a top-tier ICC tournament.

A clinical 8-wicket victory against Papua New Guinea in the semi-final of the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier at Aberdeen, yet for those who have been paying attention, it was far from surprising. In fact, perhaps more remarkably, Thailand were solid favourites to qualify before the tournament even began.

They had topped the table in a quadrangular series against the Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland at Deventer immediately before the Qualifier, putting paid to the suggestion that they might not fare so well outside of Asia.

Their only loss in the Netherlands came in a knife-edge last-ball thriller against the Scots, which brought an end to a 17-match winning streak - a world record in T20 Internationals. They had gone unbeaten in regional qualifying, cruising past more-established Associates such as Nepal and the UAE to finish six-from-six with a faintly ridiculous net run rate of +3.27. Thailand, in short, were on a roll.

Seventeen wins on the trot is a remarkable streak of course, but it's not quite fair to say that that this Thai team have come from nowhere. They recorded their first win over a full member back in 2013, restricting Zimbabwe to 85-6 at the WT20 Qualifier Shield Final in Dublin and an unbroken 49-run opening stand between keeper-bat Pundarika Prathanmir and skipper Sornnarin Tippoch before the rain seeing them to a 25-run win on Duckworth-Lewis.

But they would wait five years for their next, a dramatic last-ball four-wicket win over Sri Lanka at last year's Asia Cup, both achieved before they had even achieved full international status. Their third, fourth and fifth full member wins all came against Ireland over the last month.

They may well notch a fifth when they meet Bangladesh in the final on Saturday. Ahead of their first match in Scotland, which would prove an emphatic if rain-affected win over the Dutch, team manager Shan Kader told Emerging Cricket "We look forward to winning the tournament," and so they very well may.

Yet if their recent run of form meant their performance in Scotland over the last week was far from surprising, the achievement has nonetheless been remarkable. The Netherlands, though still looking to arrest a long, slow decline in the women's game, are a former Test nation and one-time World Cup quarter-finalists. Ireland are a full member side with a solid international record, and the current Scotland side are arguably stronger than both. If cricket remains a somewhat marginalised sport in the three European countries, the game is nonetheless long-established.

Thailand women played their first international barely more than a decade ago, Tippoch led that side, as she has in all but three of their matches since. And as long-time Associate journalist Andrew Nixon pointed out on his Twitter account, Nattaya Boochatham, who hit the winning runs against PNG, hasn't missed a single one. Their rise has few parallels in the history of the game, even Afghanistan's precipitious ascent through the ranks in the men's game built in large part on a side that learned their cricket in neighbouring Pakistan.

 

risingbd/Sept 6, 2019/Mukul