UAE hit with reality check as Thailand dish out sound beating in ACC Women’s Premier Cup final

National team, with Asia Cup spot already safely in the bag, fail to maintain momentum and fall to six-wicket loss

UAE's Heena Hotchandani during the six-wicket defeat against Thailand. Asian Cricket Council

The UAE were given a reality check as they were soundly beaten by Thailand in the final of the ACC Women’s Premier Cup.

The national team had already achieved their main aim at the tournament in Malaysia.

The top four sides qualify for the Women’s Asia Cup, where they will play against the stars of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka later this year.

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The UAE steamrollered their way to qualification, and thrashed Hong Kong in the semi-final, too. That set up a fixture against Thailand to take the trophy.

The Thais have set the benchmark for sides from beyond the Test-playing elite in Asia over the past decade.

It is a marker of the great strides the UAE have made that they have managed to take wins off Thailand in recent years.

But they were too good for Esha Oza’s side this time around, as they claimed an easy six-wicket win in Kuala Lumpur.

In some ways, the UAE were victims of their own success. They were light on batting practice ahead of the final as they had been so dominant in their previous matches.

In the three fixtures in which the UAE batted second in the competition, they only required a combined total of 14.3 overs to complete wins against Saudi Arabian, Oman and Hong Kong.

Another of their matches was shortened by rain to five overs per side, against China.

As such, when they made it to the final, against the best bowling attack in the competition other than their own, they were found wanting.

Theertha Satishscored 18 off 20 balls for the UAE. Asian Cricket Council

They were only able to post 95-9 from their 20 overs, contributing to their own demise as three of their top five batters fell to run outs.

Thailand were able to chase the target off the first ball of the penultimate over of their allotted 20.

“We have given it our all these past two weeks but we could have done better today to finish on the winning side,” said Oza, who was player of the tournament, having finished top of the run scoring charts with 277.

“Thailand played better cricket. We didn’t have enough on the board, and it was quite a good wicket to bat on.

“We had a slow start and then we didn’t have that momentum. If we had more runs on the board, we could have restricted them.”