At the Asean Women’s T20 Cup in Thailand, Hong Kong faced Malaysia in their fourth match, still looking for their first win after a disappointing start to the tournament.
The pitch had dried considerably and upon winning the toss Captain Mariko Hill chose to bat first. After several disappointing performances with the bat there was considerable pressure on the team to post a respectable score. Coach Richard Waite rejigged the batting order opting to have Mariko Hill and Shanzeen Shahzad open the batting. With the early loss of Shanzeen Shahzad in the second over, it looked as though the players hadn’t learnt from the previous games and were failing to adapt to the pitch and the situation.
Yasmin Daswani though scored an elegant half-century (56 from 57 balls) as she and Hill put on 59 for the second wicket. Wicketkeeper Bella Bo Yee came in at number five and the pair added an unbeaten 60 runs to lift Hong Kong to 119 for 3 after 20 overs.
Malaysia got off to a good start but lost opener Yusrina Yaakop at the end of the second over bowled by the 14-year-old Maryam Bibi for 1. Allison Siu bowled Winifred Duraisngam for 6 with the score on 38 after 7.4 overs. Hong Kong’s bowlers though were spraying the ball all over the place, conceding 20 wides in the innings, and Christina Baret (44 not out) and Elysa Yasmin (33) looked to have combined for a match winning partnership with Malaysia needing just five off the last over.
With two runs Shahzad bowled Yasmin with the second to last ball, leaving Mahirah Izzati to score two off the last ball for victory. A scampered single tied the scores to create the first ‘super over’ of the tournament.
Malaysia batted first in the super over and Hill conceded just 5 runs while taking 2 wickets. With Hill and Shahzad opening Hong Kong needed 6 runs to win the match. If Hong Kong scored only 5 they would still win based on amount of boundaries scored during the innings (10 against 4).
Hill faced the first ball and got a single, Shahzad had a big swing and a miss at the second. On the third Shahzad steered the ball past third man for 4. Needing just 1 to win, Shahzad smashed another four to lift Hong Kong to their first win of the tournament.
Hong Kong face Tanzania in their final game on the 13 March.
Additional reporting and images: HK Cricket, Cricket Thai