Sophie Devine scores sixth straight T20I fifty as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka
Saturday 22 February 2020 14:03, UK
Thailand showed plenty of potential before succumbing to a seven-wicket defeat to West Indies on their Women's T20 World Cup debut.
Thailand were energetic in the field and skilful enough with the ball to have West Indies briefly rattled at 27-3 after seven overs of what had appeared to be a routine run-chase of 79.
That outlook might have even been better for the debutants, but for the intervention of DRS.
Chanida Sutthiruang had Shermaine Campbelle given out lbw to a vicious in-swinger - a fourth wicket to fall for eight runs in the space of three overs - but, on review, the ball was shown to be sliding down leg.
Campbelle (25no) hung around, sharing in an unbroken fifty partnership with Stafanie Taylor (26no), before celebrating her 100th T20 international appearance by hitting the winning runs in the Group B encounter.
Earlier, Thailand won the toss and opted to bat first on their ICC major tournament debut, but they found the extra pace and bounce offered from the Perth pitch a real challenge.
Opener Nattakan Chantam (9) struck a couple of crisp boundaries through the offside - an area of the ground the predominantly leg-sided Thailand batters otherwise struggled to pick out - but then fell in the fourth over.
Chantam was the second wicket to fall and, with just 20 balls of the innings gone and only 11 runs on the scoreboard, there were legitimate concerns over what kind of total Thailand could muster.
Thankfully, a fine contribution of 33 from Nannapat Koncharoenkai led the rebuild effort and a 35-run partnership with Naruemol Chalwai (13) helped Thailand to a position where they could kick look to kick on in the final 10 overs and target a score in excess of 100.
That proved to be the problem, however, hitting boundaries. Thailand could only find one four from the final 15 overs, and that one wouldn't come till the penultimate ball of the innings, as they stumbled their way to a score of 78-9 - Taylor's offspin accounting for 3-13 from three overs.
It looked to be a well-below-par total, but an impressive Thai fielding effort - their first two wickets to run outs - helped them back into the game, while Soraya Lateh (1-21) would become their first World Cup wicket-taker as she bowled Hayley Matthews (16) with one that kept low.
Had Sutthiruang's lbw of Campbelle stood, then West Indies really would have been struggling at 27-4, but the overturned decision rather took the wind out of Thailand and ultimately the Caribbean outfit cruised to a relatively comfortable win thereafter.
Meanwhile, in Group A, New Zealand saw off Sri Lanka by seven wickets with skipper Sophie Devine (75no off 55) scoring her sixth straight T20I half-century.
The White Ferns were toiling early on as Sri Lanka, inspired by skipper Chamari Atapattu (41 off 30), reached 60-0 inside eight overs in Perth - but the Asian side could only post 127-7.
Hayley Jensen (3-16) recorded her joint-best T20I figures and Amelia Kerr snared 2-21 as Sri Lanka were pegged back, with the batters between four and seven in the order adding just seven runs between them.
Sri Lanka's catching let them down in the chase, with Suzie Bates dropped on nought at slip and Devine shelled on 22 on long-on and on 60 at deep midwicket.
The third drop came with New Zealand requiring only 16 and Devine's side eased to their target in 17.4 overs - the captain sealing victory with back-to-back boundaries - ahead of their clash with India in Melbourne on Thursday.
Watch England vs South Africa in the T20 Women's World Cup live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.30am on Sunday.
