KUWAIT CITY, Feb 4: Kuwait women’s cricket team caused a major upset in the ongoing ACC U-19 women’s championship by defeating a much fancied and tournament favorites Bhutan by 18 runs at Hubara grounds at Ahmadi.
Winning two consecutive matches, Kuwait became the first team to reach the semi-final. A combined team effort was the key factor in Kuwait’s victory.
Bhutan won the toss and sent Kuwait to bat first, Priyada Murali & Maryam Omar set up a slow but solid platform by seeing off Anju Gurung and Tsering Wangmo the fearsome fast bowlers of Bhutan. Anju & Tsering bowled a hostile spell and never let the Kuwait openers to settle. Tsering soon bowled Maryam and Priyada along with Varshini posted 24 runs when Priyada (15 runs) was run-out by a direct throw from Sonam. Kuwait, middle order somehow withstood the accurate bowling of Bhutan to post 94 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 25 overs.

Afia Khan played well to score 13 runs. Devika Darjee, Sonam Chodan & Ugyen Dema took a wicket each for Bhutan.
Chasing a low total, Bhutan openers Ugyen Dema & Sonam put on 30 runs in 4 overs. Introduction of Khadija Khalil & Khansa Irfan put the brakes on Bhutan who were scoring freely. Afia Khan then brought the much needed breakthrough for Kuwait as she had the well settled Ugyen caught in front of the wicket. Varshini Suresh who was brought from the Ahmadi end bowled a super spell to wreck the Bhutan batting by running through the Bhutan batting line up. Varshini’s 4 for 10 runs rightly fetched her the Player of the Match award. Zabreen, Afia, Khansa, Khadija bowled well to capture a wicket each to skittle the fancied Bhutan for 76 runs.

Nepal played enterprising cricket to prevail over Malaysia by a margin of 97 runs, thus improving the chances to reach the semi-final. Batting first Nepal scored 136 runs at Unity ground.
Shilu Rijal the Nepal opener scored a dashing 35 runs in 39 balls and along with Indu Varma (7 runs) put on 49 runs for the second wicket. Mamta Choudhary & Sonu Khada then set up a solid partnership to put Nepal in the driver’s seat. Mamta struck a well made 23 runs. Nur Nadhirah & Nuryaz Wani took two wickets each for Malaysia.
Malaysia chasing 136 were no match for the skillful Nepalese bowlers as Rubina Chhettri & Santoshi Choudhary struck at regular intervals to bowl out Malaysia for 39 runs. Santoshi who took 4 wickets for 13 runs was declared Player of the Match & Rubina supported her well to claim 3 wickets.
Qatar played their match of the life as they crushed Hong Kong by 68 runs to stay alive for the semi-final berth. Riding on Manali Kadam’s 42 runs and a useful 20 runs by Huda Mallik enabled Qatar to post 130 runs.

The diminutive Khadija Ahmed played well to score 17 runs in the end overs. Marikko Hill was the pick of Hong Kong bowlers as she bowled well to capture 4 wickets for 34 runs. Manli Kadam was declared Player of the Match for her batting performance.
In a match played at Unity in the morning, China came back strongly to dash UAE hopes as the minnows of cricket defeated the Gulf nation by 68 runs. China batters found their form as Li Yang Ying (19 runs) & Chen HuiYa (18 runs) played well to give China an opening stand of 34 runs. Chen top scored with 34 runs while Zhou Cai Yun & Zhu Li Ya plundered the UAE attack to post 163 runs for 4 wickets, the highest total so far in the tournament.
Super fielding by China accounted for 5 runs outs and only Kyna Vedasinghe with 19 runs &captain Humaira Tasneem who scored 15 runs reached double figures. Ding Xiu Xiu took 4 for 16 runs for China. Chen HuiYa was declared Player of the Match for her batting performance.