THAILAND FIGHT BACK STRONGLY AGAINST MALAYSIA BEFORE THE RAIN

THAILAND FIGHT BACK STRONGLY AGAINST MALAYSIA BEFORE THE RAIN

Thailand men’s cricket team faced Malaysia in the second round of matches in the ICC World Twenty20 Asia Qualifier ‘B’ at UKM Oval after both sides had won their opening matches in the competition.

The hosts Malaysia are a higher ranked team and Thailand’s coach Nuwan Siroman was looking forward to a contest that would test his team after their comprehensive victory over China. ‘The boys are really positive after all the hard work done over the last four or five months and they are now getting the results. The boys are hungry to play good cricket and they are learning a lot and aiming to make the most of every opportunity they get.’

Malaysia were asked to bat first and soon showed their quality as they made a fine start to their innings reaching 79 for 1 after the first 10 overs and looking set for a big total. Thailand captain Vichanath Singh had other ideas as he turned the tables on Malaysia by claiming three wickets in the space of nine balls with his left-arm spin.

The prize wicket was that of opener Shafiq Sharif who played an exciting innings of 54 from 38 balls with nine fours and Thailand continued to fight hard in the field as they restricted Malaysia to a total of 124 for 7 after 18 overs when the match was interrupted by heavy rain.

Thailand’s captain would have been pleased with his figures of 3 for 24 and with his team’s encouraging fight back when put under pressure but the match never resumed and both teams claimed one point from a no result.

There were comfortable wins for Singapore and Bhutan in the day’s other matches as China and Myanmar again looked out of their depth which means that Thailand are at the top of the table with three points from two matches thanks to their superior net run-rate. Thailand will be looking to keep up the good work when they play Bhutan in their next match on Saturday afternoon.

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