Hosts Singapore lifted the World Cricket League
Division Five trophy, beating neighbours Malaysia by nine wickets in a one-sided final
at the Kallang Ground. Both teams have been promoted
to Division Four, and will join Nepal,
Tanzania, Denmark and the United States of America in the
division to be played late this year.
Malaysia's 159 turned out to
be woefully inadequate as Singapore,
led by Chaminda Ruwan's unbeaten 91, guided them home in just 26.4 overs. Ruwan
smashed 14 fours and a six and shared an unbeaten stand of 118 with Anish Param
for the second wicket.
Malaysia's middle order let
the side down after the captain Suresh Navaratnam opted to bat. The opener R
Madhavan scored 48 to get the team off to a steady start, but Singapore
fought back thanks to their legspinner Christopher Janik, who took 3 for 17.
Hassan Ghulam resisted with 33 at No.10 but it came a little too late. Malaysia lost
their last nine wickets for only 85 runs.
Singapore coach Trevor
Chappell said: "I am very pleased to have been able to have coached the
side to promotion, they've worked hard this week and it's a good group of
cricketers from many different backgrounds trying to play as much cricket as
they can while also raising families, studying or working full-time.
Malaysia's coach Roy Dias
said poor batting had let the side down in the event.
"There
have been few players that have really performed this week with the bat for us
and in my opinion we did well to win the first four matches with the
performances we put in. I am disappointed we lost today but our batting and
bowling wasn't up to the mark this week at all and I want to go back to Malaysia and
look at the pool of players on offer and start to phase out some of the older
members of the squad to help the team develop.
"I'm
looking forward to Division 4 and facing my former team Nepal, the whole division is going to be tough
for Malaysia
but I believe we have got what it takes to be there."
3rd Place Play-off
It
was a tense finish at the 3rd place play-offs at the Padang as Guernsey sneaked home by one run againstCayman Islands. Jeremy Frith top scored for
Guernsey with 57, off 81 balls before he was
trapped lbw to Troy Taylor, the right-arm seamer. Taylor took 4 for 50 and he was supported by
Ryan Bovell, who took 3 for 41. Cayman Islands
though conceded a massive 49 extras, including 32 wides and six no-balls,
amounting to just over six extra overs.
Guernsey bowled with better
discipline and were led by a five-wicket haul by the right-arm seamer David
Hooper. Pearson Best was the only batsman to show solid resistance, scoring 79.
Conroy Wrght made a patient 39, off 77 balls, but Hooper took two more lower
order wickets to help Guernsey sneak home.
5th Place Play-off
Bahrain coasted to a five-wicket win against Argentina in the fifth place play-offs at the Indian Association Ground. Bahrain's off-spin duo of Adil Hanif and Zafar
Zaheer took four wickets each to restrict Argentina to a paltry 139. Argentina
featured some of the reserves who had not played in the tournament this week,
and the batsmen struggled. Martin Siri's 26 was the highest individual score in
the innings. Hanif followed up his efforts with the ball to hit 38 to set up Bahrain's easy
win. He picked up the Player of the Tournament trophy as well, in addition to
his Man-of-the-Match award.
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