There were no upsets on the opening
day of the 11th edition of the Asia Cup Women Softball championship
at the Gelora Bung Karno's Softball
Stadium, in Jakarta today, as Japan, China,
Philippines and Chinese Taipei waltzed their way past.
Defending champions and world ranked
no 2, Japan, in their opening match of the tournament in the morning, defeated
Thailand 11-0 in four innings, with 3 runs in the first and 4 each in the
second and third, to win under the run ahead rules.
Thailand, had no answer to the
well-oiled Japanese team and only had two hits but no runs.
In their second game in the afternoon,
against Korea, Japan had an easy passage too, with five runs in the first and
seven in the second but had to wait for the fourth innings to be declared
winners, again under the run ahead rule.
Under the run ahead rule, teams will
be declared winners before the end seven innings, if they are ahead by 15 runs
in the third inning, 10 runs in the fourth, seven runs after five innings
on wards.
Philippines, too had easy opening
match when they defeated Singapore 13 -0 after four innings. They had 8 runs in
first inning, four in the second and one in the third.
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| Philippines Skyylynne Ellazar has got this againt Hong Kong |
In the afternoon game, Philippines
chalked their second win defeating Hong Kong 10-0.
After no runs in the opening inning,
Philippines went ahead in the second by two runs, chalked five in the third and
three more in the fourth inning.
China continued the rout in the
morning matches, when they defeated India 15-0 in three innings.
They had a brilliant start with 12
runs in the first inning before another 3 in the second innings to conclude the
game in the third.
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| Close call between Japan and Korea |
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| INDONESIAN TEAM |
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| Tussle for the catch between the Japanese players against Korea |
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| Umpire calls for full count in the match between Philippines and Hong Kong |
China had only one match in their
fixtures today.
The evening matches left minnows India, Thailand,
Indonesia and Singapore to battle it out to stay in the hunt to finish among
the top six in the Asia Cup which will serve as a qualifier for the
Asia-Oceania Olympic 2020 to be held in Shanghai in September 2019. The top six
Asia teams, other than Japan (as host) will qualify.
Thus, seven from the ten teams competing here will make the cut.
Thailand strengthened their hopes of a place when they defeated India
12-0 and handed the latter’s second defeat.
Thailand meant business when in the first inning itself they chalked up
eight runs, followed one in the next and then three in the third before being
declared winner after the fourth.
Thailand will be up against mighty China in the last game of the game
tomorrow evening. China will earlier in the morning play Korea, while Thailand
will be well rested for their game against China, as it is their only game
tomorrow.
However, hoping for Thailand to upset China will be tall older.
India on the other hand, have a very slim chance to make the cut as
their remaining two matches are against Japan and Korea tomorrow and Wednesday respectively.
In the other final match of the day today, it was a close battle between
host Indonesia and Singapore battling over seven innings, before Indonesia
triumphed 6-2.
Singapore tried hard to get back into the game, but the Indonesians
backed by their fans and not wanting to let them down, put up determined effort
to keep Singapore at bay to triumph.
Indonesia too an early lead with three runs in the first inning and
another 2 in the second, but Singapore came back with a run each in the 4th
and 5th innings before Indonesia eased the pressure on themselves
with another run in the sixth to hold on victory at the end of the seventh
inning.
Singapore had five hits and two runs, while Indonesia had 11 hits and
six runs.
While Indonesia and Thailand have a win after two matches and have lined
themselves to qualify for the Olympics qualifier with sixth and seventh placings,
the battle for the places will be clearer after tomorrow’s matches.
DAY 1 RESULTS:
Japan 11 Thailand 0
Philippines 13 Singapore 0
China 15 India 0
Chinese Taipei 11 Indonesia 0
Korea 0 Japan 12
Hongkong 0 Philippines 10
India Thailand 0-12
Indonesia Singapore 6-2
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