The UAE women's team adopted a unique strategy in cricket history, all the players retired out. Given the threat of rain, the UAE chose this method to finish the match early. Due to this strategy, they won the match by all-out Qatar for 29 runs, and reached the top spot in the points table.
On Saturday, there was a strange incident in the cricket world when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) women's team came out to play against Qatar in the match of the T20 World Cup, Asia Qualifier 2025. Batting first, UAE posted a decent total of 192 runs thanks to an unbeaten partnership from openers Esha Rohit Oza and Theertha Satish. However, something very unusual happened after this, as the entire UAE team retired out and set Qatar a target of 193 runs. This was the first time in the history of cricket that all the players of a team retired out.
The reason behind this 'retire out' strategy of the UAE was that there was a risk of rain in this match being played in Bangkok. If rain had spoiled the match, then the points would have been divided between the two teams and to avoid this, the UAE used this strange strategy so that the match could be finished early. This strategy proved to be in UAE's favour as they bowled out Qatar for just 29 runs and thus ended the match before the weather interrupted.
Talking about the match, captain Esha Rohit Oza scored 113 runs off 55 balls, while Tirtha Satish scored 74 runs off 42 balls. None of Qatar's bowlers could take wickets, but the UAE batsmen retired and ended their innings. Later, Qatar's team could not even reach the target and were all-out for 29 runs. The team's opener Rizpha Emmanuel Qatar was the top scorer with 20 runs.
For UAE, Mitchelle Botha took three wickets while Katie Thompson took two wickets. With this win, UAE has reached the top of the points table with two wins in two matches. Thailand is in second place with three points from two matches. Qatar is at the bottom of the points table with a defeat in their first match.