ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier Day 7 – Top moments
India v Zimbabwe
Ever since she made her international debut for India Women in 2013, Poonam Yadav’s brief has been to bowl on the fourth or fifth stump so that the batters need to risk their wicket to play her against the turn. She stuck to her brief wonderfully against Zimbabwe Women to finish with figures of 7.2-2-19-5 and play a leading role in a nine-wicket win at the P Sara Oval on Monday (February 13).
When she came in to bowl in the 14th over, Zimbabwe was already two wickets down. She needed just four balls to strike for the first time when Ashley Ndiraya played against the turn for the ball to lob in the air. Yadav ran back past the popping crease to complete the catch behind the umpire.
That was the moment of the match, as Yadav became difficult to negotiate after that. She took the rest of her four wickets in the third, fifth, sixth and eighth over to end Zimbabwe’s innings, and take her tally in the tournament to ten in three games.
India Women put in a hugely dominant performance to dismiss Zimbabwe Women for just 60 All Out before chasing down the total inside 10 overs for the loss of one wicket in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in Colombo.
Scotland v Pakistan
Kirstie Gordon, Scotland's young left-arm spinner, has been one of the team's finds of the tournament. In Scotland's final match against Pakistan, the Associate nation had the difficult job of defending a target of 92. The Pakistan openers were solid, having gone up to 40 for 0 when in the 12th over of the match, Gordon's sixth, the youngster struck.
Nain Abidi mistimed one and was caught by Kathryn Bryce. The very next ball, Bismah Maroof was clean bowled.
Unfortunately for Gordon, she had to wait till after the lunch break to bowl the hat-trick ball in her next over. She couldn't make it three in three then, but a couple of overs later, did it again to have both Nahida Khan and Ayesha Zafar bowled in consecutive deliveries and finished with figures of 4 for 29.
"I’ve really enjoyed the experience of being out in these conditions. It’s more advantageous to be a spinner so I’ve had quite a bit of success with the ball, which is been really good," she said. "In this tournament, I’ve learnt just how to vary my pace a bit to the batsmen, it’s really important."
Sri Lanka v Thailand
One of the goals of Thailand Women in the tournament was to bat out its quota of 50 overs in all its four Group A league games.
After getting bowled out for 55 in 29.1 overs in the first game against India, it showed tremendous fight against Zimbabwe, where it lasted for 47.3 overs. The game against Ireland Woman was the first time that it achieved its objective, and then to repeat the feat against Sri Lanka Women was commendable, especially in conditions assisting the slower bowlers.
Thailand lost to Sri Lanka by seven wickets at the Mercantile Cricket Association ground, but the spirit with which the team played through the tournament earned it many new fans. That and experience wasn't all the players would head back home with: The players had just finished their cooling down exercises when Janak Gamage, the coach and a former Sri Lankan fast bowler, broke the news that each of the 14 members of the squad would receive a new kit bag. The players were ecstatic.