UAE Women’s Cricket Team Wins by 163 Runs in T20 World Cup Qualifiers

Photo : ICC

The UAE women's cricket team made an unusual move during their match against Qatar in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifiers 2025, which took place at the Terdthai Cricket Ground in Bangkok.

The UAE team dominated with the bat and then made a rare decision to retire out every batter in their line-up. This strategy helped them finish their innings quickly, allowing them to bowl before bad weather could affect the game. As a result, they won the match by a huge margin of 163 runs.

The match started with UAE’s openers, Theertha Satish and captain Esha Rohit Oza, giving their team a great start. The pair put on a 192-run partnership in just 16 overs. Oza played a brilliant knock of 113 runs from 55 balls, hitting 14 boundaries and five sixes. Satish also made an important contribution, scoring 74 runs off 42 balls, which included 11 boundaries.

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With the threat of rain looming, the UAE team used a clever tactic. They had every batter walk out to the crease, only to retire out immediately. This allowed them to quickly finish their batting innings and get to their bowling before the weather could cause delays. It was a legal and strategic move under the rules of T20 cricket.

Despite the unusual tactic, the result was never in doubt. UAE’s bowlers made quick work of Qatar’s batting. Qatar was all out for just 29 runs in 11.1 overs. Michelle Botha, a left-arm spinner, led the bowling attack with impressive figures of 3 wickets for 11 runs. Katie Thompson picked up two wickets, while Esha, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, and Vaishnave Mahesh each took one wicket.

Esha’s performance with both bat and ball earned her the Player of the Match award. She scored a century and also took a wicket, giving away just 1 run from her single over.

Thanks to this commanding victory, the UAE moved to the top of the points table with four points and a net run rate of 6.998. Earlier, they had beaten Malaysia by nine wickets in their opening match. The UAE team will face Malaysia again on May 13 at the same venue in Bangkok.

A total of nine teams are competing in this part of the qualifiers, divided into three groups of three teams each. The top three teams from each group will move on to the Super Three stage, and the overall winner will advance to the next stage of the tournament.