In the final day of the group stage games, Hong Kong needed a win to secure 3rd position in the group in order to progress to a play-off game against Thailand A. Hong Kong made two changes to today’s game with Jaswinder Kaur and Alison Siu coming in for Emma Lai and Mehreen Yousaf.
Winning the toss and bowling first allowed Jasmine Titmuss to open up with the new ball against Myanmar’s Opening batsmen Zin Tharapy Khaw and Lin Lin Htun. The change worked as Titmuss struck early with a first (legitimate) ball wicket of Khaw. This left Myanmar Captain Htun with young Zar Lin Win at the other end. Annie Ho opens the bowling for the first time in the Smash and both seamers looked to try restrict the batsman as best they can.
Coming out of the Powerplay, Hong Kong’s Mariko Hill and Kary Chan looked to keep the pressure on as Myanmar’s Htun and Win battled to 18/1 after their first 6 overs. With few runs on the board and wickets not falling Hong Kong looked to their dearth of bowlers in the hunt for wickets. Betty Chan’s spin and Alison Siu’s outswing bowling are not bad assets to have as Chan got the breakthrough as Win’s patience wore thin and she popped a catch to Jasmine Titmuss at short mid-wicket.
Htun was joined by Zon Lin who looked to open her account with a big shot only to find the edge but keeper Haya Cheung couldn’t hold on. Hong Kong kept Myanmar to 31/2 off the first 10 overs but continued to be sloppy in the field with another dropped catch at mid-on and a missed run out opportunity. This allowed Myanmar to gain some momentum with the bat as they got to 47/2 off 13 overs before Kary Chan bowled Zon Lin just as she started to get going.
Ruchitha Venkatesh helped put the pressure on Htun as she was joined by Zar Li Thoon. Myanmar, realising they needed to start scoring, looked to run singles and pressure the fielders with their running. Going into the final stages of the innings, Myanmar continually looked to accumulate from 63/3 from 16 overs. Htun looked to accelerate the score when she was adjudged LBW for 17 off Jasmine Titmuss. This left Myanmar 77/4 with 2 overs remaining in their innings. May Poe Poe San and Thoon were left 12 balls to maximise their score.
Skipper Mariko Hill brought herself back on and attempted to lock down one end but Myanmar had no intention of backing down and moved to 84/4 with one over remaining. Jasmine Titmuss was again entrusted with the final over and forced a runout with Thoon being dismissed by keeper Haya Cheung. Cheung struck again with new batsman Khin Min Myat run out. She then got her hattrick of run outs with Thae Thae Aung her third wicket. Myanmar score 91/7 off their innings with extras top scoring with 38.
Hong Kong began their chase with a new opening partnership with Yasmin Daswani batting with Bella Poon at the top of the order for the first time. After a good opening over, Poon was stumped by keeper, Zar Lin Win. Her partner Daswani soon followed with a marginal LBW. This left Jaswinder Kaur and Kary Chan looking to stabilise the innings from 19/2. The partnership looked promising with quick singles being taken until Kaur missed straight one by Zon Lin.
In came Mariko Hill and Kary Chan to keep the innings going. At the end of the powerplay, Hong Kong were 30/2 as the field continued to open up. Hong Kong started to move at 5’s as Kary Chan and Mariko Hill found their stride. Reaching 50/3 after 8 overs, Hong Kong continued to bat beautifully with Hill striking the ball beautifully down the ground and Chan going to her trademark pull shots.
The Myanmar bowlers had no answer to the pair as they continued to hit the ball hard and find the boundary. They reached 80 in no time and were left with 5 to win with 8 overs to spare. The innings ended with Hill scoring 26* and Chan scoring 28*. Hong Kong finished 91/3 off 12.5 overs to get their 2nd win in the T20 Smash.
The win will see Hong Kong play Thailand A in a quest for a 5th place tournament finish on Friday 18th January at Asian Institute of Technology.
Scorecard
Notable Performances
Mariko Hill – 28*Kary Chan – 26*, 4-0-10-1Jasmine Titmuss – 4-0-13-2