SINGAPORE FINISH IN THIRD PLAC AFTER A BRUTAL BATTING DISPLAY AGAINST JAPAN

Finals day in the ACC Men’s Challenger Cup at TCG in Bangkok was upon us with the third place play-off between Japan and Singapore being played in the morning before Saudi Arabia and Cambodia took centre stage in the afternoon. We were all looking forward to the final but the third place play-off was a wonderful  match with Singapore chasing down a target of 216 in 19.4 overs.

Singapore  won the toss and elected to field and Lachlan Lake was brilliantly caught on the cover boundary in the opening over but Japan captain Kendel Fleming responded with a straight six. Fleming was dropped at mid-off and hit the next ball for four.

Another boundary to Fleming took Japan to 30 for 1 after 4 overs and Miyauchi hit a pair of fours as 12 came from the fifth over. The sixth over produced 15 as Japan moved to 58 for 1 after the powerplay.

Japan were able to keep the score ticking over with runs off every ball and then Fleming hit another six over long-off and Miyauchi was keeping up with a boundary as Japan reached 88 for 1 after 10 overs.

Fleming continued to reach his second fifty of the tournament and hit some of his trade mark off-drives for more sixes. Miyauchi also reached fifty and the two batsmen added 121 for the second wicket.

Fleming was out for 78 and Miyauchi for 50 but Ravichandran and Takahashi both hit out at a strike-rate of over 200 and Japan reached the highest total of the tournament as they scored 215 for 3 in 20 overs.

Singapore had a stiff task on their hands but they have avoided the loss of early wickets that hampered them in recent matches and Anitra Dutta is leading the way as Singapore gained 27 runs from the fifth over and Dutta raced to his fifty in 23 balls. Singapore were 77 for 0 at the end of the powerplay.

Rezza Gaznavi was the first Singapore wicket to fall with the total on 99 but Dutta had already reached 71 as Singapore were 101 for 1 after 10 overs.

The Singapore captain carried on in amazing fashion as her raced to his 100 in 41 balls and he was given powerful support from Chandramohan. Dutta had made the first individual hundred of the tournament but he could not quite see it through.

Dutta hit 102 runs in boundaries with 15 fours and 7 sixes but was bowled for 122 in the penultimate over. There was no late drama thanks to Chandramohan who finished on 57* and took Singapore home to victory by eight wickets as they made 216 for 2 with four balls left and Dutta was player of the match for his superb century.