SINGAPORE SNATCH WIN AGAINST HONG KONG
Singapore won their first game against Hong Kong in a real nail-biter of a match. It all went down to the last over as they won the game by just one run.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Singapore were quickly on the back-foot when they lost two wickets to almost similar shots. Both were mistimed pulls that were skied into the air and both landed in very safe Hong Kong hands. The two that fell were Glenn Meyer (7) and Chetan Suryawanshi (3).
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| Ruwan and Mendis: A class apart |
Chaminda Ruwan (88) and Buddhika Mendis (66) were given what seemed a Herculean task of keeping their wickets and at the same time putting up runs on the board, and they did not disappoint. The duo piled on the runs as they pushed the score to a hundred by the end of the 11
th over.
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| Buddhika Mendis |
Chaminda Ruwan |
Hong Kong seemed to have no answer to the duo as they threw in all their bowlers to the same outcome of the score increasing. Ruwan and Mendis were not only hitting the boundaries but were playing very clever cricket by rotating the strike whenever they couldn't hit a four or a six. Hong Kong were obviously losing concentration and when the ball was sent straight into the air by Mendis, three Hong Kong players watched each other and no call was made as the ball in between all of them.
The partnership eventually ended in the 18th over, much to Hong Kong's relief, after the pair had made exactly 150 runs together. By this time the damage had been done and the remaining overs saw Singapore finish at 185-3.
Although Hong Kong started quite well and were getting the runs, Singapore looked the more determined team. With fielders throwing themselves at the ball, the Singaporeans saved quite a number of boundaries, thus making Hong Kong work that much harder to obtain runs. Openers Tabarak Dar (40) and Zain Abbas (31) proved resilient and were up for the challenge and by the end of the seventh over, they had 61 runs for their team – a combination of slices and glances contributing to the majority of their runs.
The Hong Kong opening pair soon fell within the space of four balls leaving the score at 86-2 after 10.3 overs. It looked as though things were falling apart sooner than expected for Hong Kong when Courtney Kruger (5) was at the wrong end of the pitch running back to his crease when his bails were plucked. It almost seemed as though he sacrificed his wicket in favor of Hussain Butt (39), knowing that Butt was a more attacking player.
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| Hussain Butt skies one for six |
Almost to say 'Thank you' to Kruger, Butt responded immediately the very next over with two huge sixes. Butt and Najeeb Amar (32) put on a critical 59-run partnership that would eventually bring the match to a very exciting finish. But when Amar and Butt both fell in the same over, it looked over for Hong Kong.
Sher Lama (12) and Afzaal Haider (12*) were at the crease when their team needed 20 runs of the last over – surely an attainable task in Twenty20 cricket. With eights runs needed from the last two balls, the batsmen collapsed under the pressure when Sher Lama was run out. They may have lost the match but Haider made sure the team went out with a bang. He slammed a huge six to finish off the game.
With his blazing 81 runs off 51 balls, Chaminda Ruwan of Singapore was named the Man of the Match.
Hong Kong v Singapore at KOC Hubara
SINGAPORE WON BY 1 RUN
Singapore won the toss and elected to bat
Singapore: 185 for 3 in 20 overs (C. Ruwan 88, B. Mendis 66)
Hong Kong: 184 for 6 in 20 overs (T. Dar 40, Z. Abbas 31, H. Butt 39, N. Amar 32)
Man of the Match: Chaminda Ruwan (Singapore)
Scorecard
Filed October 27 2007
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