With Theertha Satish 62, UAE wins the Asia Cup first time
Theertha Satish scored an unbeaten 62 off 60 balls, including eight fours, to help the UAE upset Malaysia by seven wickets on Wednesday at the Sylhet Outer Cricket Stadium, giving them their first victory in the Asia Cup T20 (October 5). The UAE took till the first delivery of the last over to attain the objective after limiting Malaysia to 88/4.
Esha Rohit Oza was defeated early in the chase by Sasha Azmi, outleg-before, and Khushi Sharma was also run out on the powerplay. The UAE needed a partnership to get them out of the early difficulty at 18/2 in the fifth over, and Satish and skipper Chaya Mughal set about accomplishing that. They put up a slow-moving third-wicket stand of 59 runs, taking more than 12 overs.
In the 17th over, with the UAE 12 runs from the mark, Mahirah Izzati Ismail took a catch off her own bowling to eliminate Mughal and break the partnership. Before the former completed the chase with a boundary off Ainna Hamizah Hashim in the penultimate over, Satish and Kavisha Egodage traded singles.
Prior to that, after choosing to bat, Malaysia got off to a slow start as the openers needed more than seven over to put up their 40-run partnership. Wan Julia was the first to go down, giving Oza a wicket. She made just 9 out of 17 contributions to the partnership.
When Wan Julia was replaced by Esha Rohit Oza for eight runs, the opening partnership of 40 runs was broken. Indhuja Nandakumar’s dismissal of Mas Elysa for 14 was the second wicket.
The captain of Malaysia was able to lead the team in scoring, but her slow-moving inning of 33 from 53 deliveries hurt the team since she used so many deliveries. The batsman was dismissed in the 17th over, giving Vaishnave Mahesh his maiden wicket and giving UAE their third wicket.
Short scores
UAE defeated Malaysia 91/3 in 19.1 overs (Theertha Satish 62*, Chaya Mughal 17; Sasha Azmi 1-7) by 7 wickets. Malaysia had scored 88/4 in 20 overs (Winifred Duraisingam 33, Mas Elysa 14; Vaishnave Mahesh 1-13).
