Indian female cricketers Shreyanka Patil and Kanika Ahuja gave a tough competition to Bangladesh A and made a win for India A in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Women's Emerging Teams Cup final on Wednesday in Mong Kok.
This is the maiden version of this tournament where India won one game and the other two did not produce any result, giving them a total of four points to lead Group A. India defeated Hong Kong but their games against Pakistan and Nepal were called off due to bad weather.
India advanced because of a higher position in their table even though their semifinal matchup with Sri Lanka A was also postponed. With four points, one victory, and two no-results, Sri Lanka finished second in Group B.
India A team decided to take the first bat. In their 20 overs on the board, they scored 127/7. Shweta Sehrawat, the star of the Women's U19 T20 World Cup and leading run-scorer in that competition, could only score 13 runs.
The team reached three figures thanks to the contributions of Dinesh Vrinda (36 in 29 balls, with five fours and a six), Kanika Ahuja (30 in 23 balls, with four boundaries), and U Chetry (22 in 20 balls, with two fours and a six).
Two of Bangladesh's top bowlers were Nahida Akter (2/13 in four overs) and Sultana Khatun (2/30 in four overs).
From the first ball in the chase for 128 the Indian bowlers put Bangladesh under pressure. For Bangladesh, wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Nobody managed to score more than 20 runs, with double-digit scores from Nahida Akter (17 in 22 balls), Sobhana Mostary (16 in 22 balls), and Shathi Rani (13 in 11 balls). In 19.2 overs, Bangladesh was bowled out for 96 runs.
With the ball, Shreyanka (4/13 in four overs) shone for Team India. In four overs, Mannat Kashyap also finished with 3/20. In four overs, Kanika took 2/23 and was named "Player of the Match" for her all-around performance.
The "Player of the Tournament" award went to Shreyanka for her nine wickets in two games, which also included a five-wicket haul. She finished with the highest wicket total in the competition with the best figures of 5/2.
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