INDIA racked up the biggest team score of the ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 so far to overpower UAE, while South Africa’s Madison Landsman took the tournament’s first-ever hat-trick to beat Scotland on a record-breaking day.

Tournament hosts South Africa survived a scare to beat Scotland in a thrilling encounter in Benoni.

The Proteas were on the ropes at 20/4 and again at 43/6, but a superb 53 from 49 balls by Kayla Reyneke helped her side bat out the full allocation and reach a competitive total of 112/7.

Scotland started steadily with the bat, laying a platform before attempting to accelerate in the second half of the chase.

However, the risk of hitting out saw wickets tumble, with Landsman the star performer with the ball, taking a superb hat-trick in the 15th over to all but end Scottish hopes of reaching the target. Landsman finished with figures of 4/12 from her four overs.

Australia crush USA by nine wickets
Australia got a win under their belts thanks to a dominant display against USA.

A fine combined bowling display saw Australia take all ten wickets for just 64 runs in 15.3 overs, with Snigdha Paul (17 from 24) the joint top-scorer along with extras. Opener Laasya Mullapudi was the only other American to reach double figures in an innings that featured an extraordinary five run-outs.

Paul made an early breakthrough, bowling Paris Bowdler, but that was the final high point for the USA on the day. A calm and professional partnership between Kate Pelle (30* from 26) and Claire Moore (22* from 17) saw Australia home with 11.2 overs and nine wickets remaining.

India win by 122 runs…
UAE were at the receiving end of some brutal hitting from opening pair Shafali Verma (78 from 34) and Shweta Sehrawat (74* from 49) as the duo used all their experience to amass 111 runs in merely 51 balls. Shafali’s dismissal in the ninth over brought little relief, as the incoming batters kept going for their runs. UAE weren’t helped by their poor fielding effort, which saw them drop Richa Ghosh (49 from 29) on four occasions.

Chasing a mammoth total of 220 runs, UAE went big early on but India put a brake on their scoring rate after dismissing Theertha Satish (16 from 5). Thereafter, disciplined bowling from India ensured that UAE never came close to winning the game.

Bangladesh notch up second win
A strong batting display from Bangladesh helped them to a win against Sri Lanka and their second victory of the tournament.

Big-hitting opener Afia Prottasha led from the front after Bangladesh were put in to bat, hitting five fours and three sixes in her 53 from 43 balls. Sri Lanka seemed to have stemmed the flow with a double-wicket 12th over that left Bangladesh standing at 79/2 after the loss of Misty Shaha. But it was at this stage that the protagonists of the win against Australia, Dilara Akter (36* from 27) and Shorna Akter (50* from 28), came together to propel Bangladesh to 165/2.

Sri Lanka were rattled early on in their innings, losing two wickets in the powerplay overs. Skipper Vishmi Gunarathne (61* from 54) and Dewmi Wijerathne (55 from 44) settled down the innings, and their valiant partnership of 96 runs made sure that Sri Lanka were always in the hunt. But Bangladesh’s high total proved to be beyond their reach, with Marufa Akter the pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh with 2/19. (ICC Media)