All the teams have reached UAE ahead of the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier to be held from April 25 to May 7. The 10-team tournament was preceded by a two-match T20 series between Ireland and Thailand, while a four-nation T20 tournament was also scheduled to be played from April 16-19, featuring hosts UAE along with Netherlands, Scotland and USA.
However, the four-nation tournament was completely canceled due to rain and not a single ball was played in any of its six matches. The first T20 between Ireland and Thailand on 16 April was also canceled due to rain, but in the second match on 18 April, Ireland won the series by 8 wickets in a one-sided match.
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Earlier last week, a three-nation ODI series was played in UAE itself, in which Scotland won the title by defeating USA and Papua New Guinea. Currently, there are a lot of women’s T20 matches in UAE. The match between Ireland and Thailand was to be played on April 16 at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, but due to bad weather and rain throughout the UAE, no match could be played that day. In the second T20 on 18 April, Thailand won the toss and decided to bat first but were all out after scoring only 79 runs in 19 overs.
For Thailand, Nannapat Koncharoenkai scored the maximum of 27 runs, while in bowling, Arlen Kelly of Ireland took the maximum of 4 wickets for 12 runs. Apart from him, Laura Delaney took 2 wickets for 13 runs. In reply to the target, Ireland won comfortably by losing only 2 wickets in 13.2 overs. Orla Prendergast top-scored with 32 runs in 37 balls, while Amy Hunter scored an unbeaten 31 runs in 31 balls. Laura Delaney played a quick unbeaten inning of 15 runs in 11 balls.
In this match, captain Laura Delaney apart from performing well all-round, also made a big record. She became the first player for Ireland to play 200 matches, of which 163 were international matches (60 ODIs and 103 T20s).
