‘Another India vs Pak Final?’- Twitter anticipates another Indo-Pak clash after India beat Thailand by 74 runs in first semi-final of Women’s Asia Cup

Women’s Asia Cup (Source: Twitter)

After the riveting action in the group stage, the Women’s Asia Cup moved to the semi-final stages on Thursday. The first semi-final was held between India and Thailand at the Sylhet International Stadium in Bangladesh. While India became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, Thailand made it to the knockout stage of the tournament for the first time.

Thailand captain Naruemol Chaiwai won the toss and opted to bowl first. India had a good start as opener Shafali Verma straight away got into the act after arriving on the pitch. Smriti Mandhana, on the other hand, struggled to find boundaries.

She was finally dismissed after scoring 13 off 14 balls as India lost their first wicket at the score of 38. At the other end, Verma was quick in scoring runs and carried the game forward before losing her wicket to Sornnarin Tippoch in the 10th over.

Tippoch went on to add two more wickets to her tally dismissing the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh. Jemimah Rodrigues also made a decent contribution, scoring 27 off 26 balls. Skipper Kaur anchored the innings in the middle overs with her knock of 36 off 30 balls. Pooja Vastrakar’s cameo in the final few overs helped India reach 148/6 at the end of the innings.

Thailand’s chase got off to forgettable start as Deepti Sharma got India the early breakthrough by dismissing the opening batters inside the powerplay. Thailand batters could never get their innings going as Indian bowlers made life tougher for them.

Radha Yadav bowled multiple no balls giving Thailand several opportunities to hit in the form of free hits, but they could not capitalize on it. Skipper Naruemol Chaiwai and Nattaya Boochatham built a partnership in the middle, but they still could not get anywhere close to the required target.

Thailand batters succumbed to the scoreboard pressure as the entire unit fell like a pack of cards. Courtesy of this, India registered a comprehensive win by 74 runs and moved into the finals of the Women’s Asia Cup 2022 for the eighth consecutive time. Deepti Sharma was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with the figures of 3/7 in four overs.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to India’s comprehensive win: