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An all-round effort by Aleena Khan, led Qatar to a 7-wicket win over Bhutan in their ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifiers match, on Thursday.
Aleena Khan scalped three wickets and scored an unbeaten 41 in a chase of 115. The win meant Qatar avoided the wooden spoon as Bhutan remained winless. Having won the toss and elected to bowl first, Qatar's bowlers strayed initially as Bhutan openers Sonam and captain Ngawang Choden raced to 42 in four overs before Qatar captain Saachi Dhadwal ran out Sonam for 12. Choden, who top-scored with 27, while hitting five boundaries, followed two overs later edging a delivery from Aleena Khan to the keeper Shruti Rana in the seventh over. Three other batters got starts but failed to convert it into a significant score with as many as four batters scoring 12. Bhutan lost three wickets in the last over bowled by Dhadwal, two run-outs and an LBW, to finish on 114-9. Aleena Khan registered figures of 4-0-8-3. In reply, Sonam priced out opener Dhadwal for a duck as no wickets fell for the next 15 overs. Rana and Khan put on a mammoth 107-run partnership for the second wicket as Qatar cruised to the target in 17 overs despite a couple of late wickets by Chado Om and a run-out. Rana struck seven boundaries but fell a run short of a half-century. Player-of-the-match Aleena Khan was elated after her all-round contributions to lift the team. "When we started bowling, we got hit for quite a few runs and the team was feeling down at the time. When I came on to bowl, we were bowling really well. I got two wickets and that brought me a lot of confidence," said Aleena Khan after the game. "My roommate Hiya Ladani took an amazing catch. While batting, it was all about staying at the crease and since I batted well yesterday, I had that innings behind me. The partnership with Shruti was really good," she added. (ANI)
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