Natthakan Chantam's sparkling half-century shows what Thailand can do with exposure and experience

WOMEN'S T20 WORLD CUP PERFORMANCE OF THE DAY: Before the heavens opened to put a dampener on the final day of group stage action, Thailand's half-century hero was a glowing endorsement for growing the global game

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Thailand's debut on cricket's biggest stage might be over, but if today's display is anything to go by then there won't be any doubt about their future on it.

Before the intervention of the heavens spared Pakistan's blushes during the innings break, Sornnarin Tippoch's team had seemed like a squad transformed, liberated from the initial burdens of their first T20 World Cup trip and putting 150 on the board against a team that had looked such a strong bowling unit in the tournament's early days.

Tuesday's meeting in Sydney was the 39th time Thailand's women had taken the field in an official T20 international, and it seems a cruel twist of fate that their highest innings total yet – never mind one compiled against a Full Member nation – would come in their first ever game to finish without a result, and the tournament's first in its 11-year history.

But the achievement is not one that should be brushed aside as simply a consequence of a down-and-out team playing a dead rubber, as only six teams in its 20 matches thus far have posted larger scores, and chasing down the marker would have set a new record for their Pakistani opposition.

Central to it all was a splendid opening stand of 93 between Natthakan Chantam and Nattaya Boochatham, two players central to Thailand's journey to this point.

Boochatham made the most of a fortunate first-over reprieve – had first slip Omaima Sohail held on to a first-ball edge, perhaps the innings may have followed a rather different trajectory – yet Chantam flourished in the situation from the get-go, carving four balls to the cover rope in the fourth over alone and posting her third and most important half-century in the format to date.

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Chantam struck the majority of her runs through the coveted cover region

The match and the knock in question are a testament to what can happen when you give emerging teams repeated opportunities to play, learn and grow.

Thailand's three previous fixtures in this competition had ended in heavy defeat to established forces on the global stage, although maiden apperances against even one of the West Indies, England and South Africa would be a daunting ask for any XI, let alone doing so in the space of a week.

However, a string of meetings in Asian regional competitions mean that Javeria Khan and her squad are far less uncharted opponents. Boochatham, Chantam and Tippoch were all in the XI in 2010 the first time the teams met, when Thailand were bowled out for 49 in 19.3 overs and a 14-year-old Chantam picked up a golden duck at the hands of Nida Dar.

Two years later, there was another duck, but that time Chantam fared two balls better, and in their five meetings since she has not just got runs on the board but progressively outscored herself.

It was June 2018 when they last met – before last summer's outstanding qualification run, and before the match was even retroactively granted full T20 international status by the ICC.

By this point opening, the youngster and her veteran captain each posted a top-score of 17, and Chantam struck two of the innings' three boundaries. Today, 10 of them came from her bat alone on the way to a historic innings of 56, and only the elements could prove a match for the T20 World Cup's favourite team.

Chantam is only just now 24, with 38 international caps under her belt and as of today more official international runs than any other Thai cricketer. Having carried her bat for 82 from 71 against an India A side in January, and struck a run-a-ball 60 against a full-strength Bangladesh two days later, it is clear today's knock is no fluke.

As sudden as their rise may seem, Thailand's women have not come out of nowhere, and as quickly as they may now fade from the headlines, there is no chance that with talent like this it will be the end of their journey.

NOW READ: From the hill-country to the WACA – the story of Thailand's rise

 

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