The Asian Cricket Council Women’s T20 Championship got underway in Malaysia today with eight of the ten teams in action. The ten teams are divided into two groups with the top two in each playing semi-finals. The winners of those semis will then join Bangladesh, India, Pakistan Sri Lanka and Thailand in the next women’s Asia T20 Cup.

Hosts Malaysia, who will bid farewell to the Kinrara Oval at the conclusion of the event, set out their stall early on with a thumping win over neighbours Singapore. Batting first, they racked up 171-4 from their 20 overs thanks to 50 by Winifred Duraisingham and 59 by Mas Elysa.

Only one of Singapore’s batters was able to reach double figures as they were bowled out for 54, giving Malaysia a 117 run win.

In the other morning match, Nepal recovered from losing both openers in the second over to score 94-9, Sonam taking 4-13 on her T20I debut for Bhutan. Tshering Zangmo top scored for them in their reply with 16 but there were no other double digit scores as they were bowled out for 44, losing by 50 runs.

There were two matches in the afternoon but unfortunately they came to a premature end thanks to rain. Oman had scored 26-3 in 8.4 overs against the UAE when their match ended, whilst Bahrain were going well at 40-1 from 6.2 overs against Kuwait when their match was abandoned.

Four more matches are scheduled for tomorrow. In the morning, Singapore will play the UAE and Bhutan will come up against Hong Kong. In the afternoon, the hosts will take on Qatar whilst Kuwait play Nepal.