The United States defeated Italy in a match held on Thursday to win the ICC Women's Challenge Trophy with one match remaining.
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After taking 6 wickets including a hat-trick, the Nepali team has a strong chance of becoming the runner-up in the first edition of the ICC Women's Challenge Trophy.
Nepal has climbed to second place in the points table after defeating Vanuatu by a wide margin of 83 runs on Thursday in the tournament being held in Rwanda.
The United States has already become the winner of the 5-nation tournament being held on a double round-robin basis by collecting 12 points from 7 matches. The United States had already become the winner after defeating Italy by 9 wickets in the first match on Thursday. The United States defeated Nepal in both matches on its way to becoming the winner.
Nepal and host Rwanda have 8 points from 7 matches. With 1 match left to play, Nepal is far ahead of Rwanda. Italy has 6 points from 7 matches and Vanuatu, which has played all 8 matches, has 2 points. Vanuatu had scored 2 points by scoring a sensational 22-run victory over Nepal in the first round.
But this time at the Ghanga Cricket Stadium Oval in Kigali, Vanuatu was not given any chance. Nepal, who won the toss and elected to bat, scored 132 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. In reply, Nepal scored a powerful victory by bowling out Vanuatu for 49 runs in 16.4 overs.
Nepal changed the batting order and sent Pooja Mahato to open the innings in place of Bindu Rawal along with Samjhana Khadka. Pooja and Samjhana batted aggressively and took Nepal to 40 runs without loss in the first 6 overs of the power play. Pooja was out for 19 runs after playing 20 balls and hitting 1 six.
Bindu, who came in at number three, was 'retired heart' after playing 7 runs after playing 24 balls. Ruby Podar, who had scored a half-century in the previous match, was out for 1 run. Opener Samjhana scored 52 runs. She hit 9 fours in 51 balls. This is her second half-century in Women's Twenty20 Internationals. Earlier, she had scored an unbeaten 72 against UAE in Dambulla, Sri Lanka in the 2024 Women's Asia Cup. 
Captain Indu Verma remained unbeaten on 43 and Kavita Kunwar remained unbeaten on 6. Indu hit 7 fours in 18 balls. She hit Rachel Andrew for three consecutive fours in the last 3 balls of the innings. Rachel, Natalia Kakor and Nasimana Navaika took 1 wicket each for Vanuatu.
Vanuatu were devastated by Kavita's bowling in reply. She bowled all 6 wickets. She took a hat-trick of wickets in the 16th over, taking wickets in three consecutive balls. Kavita, the highest wicket-taker from Nepal in Twenty20 Internationals, gave away 5 runs in 3.4 overs, keeping 1 maiden.
This is the second best bowling by a Nepali player in Women's Twenty20 Internationals. Earlier, Anjali Chand had bowled a world record at the time by taking 6 wickets in 2.1 overs against Maldives in the 13th South Asian Games held in Pokhara in 2019.
Apart from Kavita, Pooja and Rachana Chaudhary took 2 wickets each for Nepal. Pooja gave away 10 runs in 4 overs and Rachana gave away 12 runs in 3 overs. Apart from opener Valenta Langietu who made 14 runs and Navaika who made 12 runs, no one else from Vanuatu could score double figures.
