Thailand thrash Netherlands to claim Quadrangular series

Netherlands crashed to a 93-run defeat against Thailand in their final match in Sportpark Het Schootsveld in Deventer on Wednesday (August 14) to finish the Women’s T20I Quadrangular series without a single win. A half-century from Nannapat Koncharoenkai set up the game for Thailand before Suleeporn Laomi and Ratanaporn Padunglerd’s three-wicket hauls helped rip through Netherlands’ batting order.

Chasing 134, the hosts were in the game for only the first five overs of their innings. Robine Rijke and Babette de Leede (11) stitched together a promising 24-run stand before disaster struck. Almost as soon as she had taken the ball Padunglerd made an immediate impact, combining with Laomi to run out Rijke for 15.

The hosts never recovered from that blow, losing wickets at regular intervals. From 24 for 1, they crashed to 40 all out, losing 4 for 0 to end the innings in 12 overs. Outside the the two openers, the remaining Netherlands batters only managed 11 runs off the bat. There were as many as five ducks— two of which were first ballers.

It was a remarkable performance from Thailand’s bowlers. They maintained great discipline and forced the hosts to make mistakes in search of runs. Laomi spell of 3 for 11 included a maiden, while Punglerd finished with career-best figures of 3 for 5 in three overs.

Earlier in the day, Thailand recovered from a troublesome start when they lost Nattakan Chantham and Naruemol Chaiwai inside the power play. However, Koncharoenkai’s maiden T20I half-century helped the team recover from the early losses while also setting up a suitable foundation from which to launch. She first shared an important 29-run stand with Nattaya Boochatham (10) and then a 35-run partnership with Chanida Sutthiruang (24) to take Thailand past the 100-run mark.

Although Thailand were unable to really kick on in the latter part of the innings, they somehow managed to creep to 133 for 8 on the strength of Koncharoenkai’s 43-ball 57— a knock that included seven boundaries.

Thailand’s emphatic win sees them to the top of the table with 10 points after five wins in six matches, surpassing Scotland who won four matches.

Brief Scores: Thailand 133/8 in 20 overs (Nannapat Koncharoenkai 57, Chanida Sutthiruang 24; Mikkie Zwilling 3-8, Annemijn van Beuge 2-20) beat Netherlands 40 in 12 overs (Ratanaporn Padunglerd 3-5, Suleeporn Laomi 3-11) by 93 runs.