United Arab Emirates Women (UAE Women) stunned the cricket world by retiring out all ten batters to secure a thrashing win against Qatar Women in the Group B match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Region Qualifier.
UAE Women retired out all ten batters
After the UAE Women chose to bat first, they scored 192 runs in 16 overs. Openers, the captain Esha Oza and the wicketkeeper-batter Theertha Satish, had the 192-run partnership for the first wicket. Skipper slammed a century and scored 113 off 55 balls with 14 fours and five sixes, while Theertha scored 74 off 42 balls with 11 fours. At the end of the 16th over, they took a bizarre decision as all their first 10 batters retired out, including both the openers.
In reply, Qatar Women were bundled out for only 29 runs in 11.1 overs, as the UAE Women won the match by 163 runs. While all six UAE bowlers picked up at least one wicket, including the skipper Esha Oza’s bowling figures of 1-0-1-1, Michelle Botha (3/11) and Katie Thompson (2/6) finished with multiple wickets.
Among Qatar batters, only the opener Rizpha Bano Emmanuel crossed the five-run mark by scoring 20 runs, while seven of their batters scored ducks.
Why did UAE Women take the stunning retire out decision?
UAE Women took that surprising all-batter retire out decision due to the potential rain threat, as T20 cricket requires at least five overs in each innings to produce any result. As the declaration of the innings is unavailable in limited-overs cricket, the UAE Women had to take that bizarre strategy to ensure a favourable result of the match.
