India ‘A’ got their ACC Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup campaign off to a flying start when they beat hosts Hong Kong by 9 wickets in their opening match on Tuesday.
Asked to bat first, Hong Kong could only manage 34 in 14 overs. In reply, India ‘A’ reached the target in 5.2 overs with the loss of one wicket.
The India team, featuring many of the stars from the successful U-19 World Cup campaign, were dominant from the beginning, choosing to field after captain Shweta Sehrawat won the toss.
Among the HK batters, Mariko Hill was the only person to hit double-digit figures with a contribution of 14 off 19 balls with 2 fours. But the rest of the HK batting lineup struggled. Shreyanka Patil was the star of the show for India, picking up figures of 5/2 in 3 overs. The Karnataka bowler was nearly on a hattrick in the 11th over when she took the wickets of Mariko and Maryam Bibi in consecutive balls and had figures of 4/0. Parshavi Chopra, who picked up two wickets, wrapped up the HK innings with the wicket of Iqra Sahar, stumped by Uma Chetry.
Mannat Kashyap and player of the U19 World Cup final Titas Sadhu had given India a great start.
The chase was comfortable enough for the Indian batters, despite a few near misses while running between the wickets for the openers in Sehrawat and Chetry. Unfortunately, the India captain fell to a good catch by Kary Chan off Betty Chan’s bowling. But in the end, along with Trisha Gongadi (19*), Chetry (16*) smacked a six off Ruchitha Venkatesh’s bowling to seal a comfortable nine-wicket win.
India ‘A’ will now face Nepal in their second fixture of the tournament on June 15 at the same ground.
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