MALAYSIA SHOCK HONG KONG TO ENTER FINAL
Malaysia won an intensely contested game with Hong Kong at the Prem
Oval by a mere two runs to set up a meeting with Nepal at the Finals
of the ACC U-19 Women's Championship tomorrow.
Losing just once in the group stages, both Hong Kong and Malaysia were
evenly poised coming into today's semi-finals. On winning the toss
Malaysia chose to pad up but it was Hong Kong who were the more vocal
even before the game had begun. Malaysia may have been a little
delayed but they soon joined the cheering contest.
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| Hong Kong's Chan Sau Har |
Malaysia were the team on top at the start but the seventh over
changed that notion. Chan Sau Har's slow left-arm bowling (5-4-1-2)
has caused incessant headaches for all teams she's come up against;
Malaysia too were now added to that list with Har taking two wickets
in her first over and finishing her remaining four all with maidens.
After the fall of those two wickets Malaysia's run-rate dipped
considerably to 2.52 17 overs into the game. With the score at 15 for
2 at the start of the seventh over Malaysian skipper Nur Aishah (25)
was expected to play a captain's innings, much like her 47 against
Kuwait, and she didn't disappoint.
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| Aishah flicks one off the pads |
Covering nearly half the pitch by the time her batting partner plays
the shot, the speedy 16-year-old was not only quick between the
wickets but had a keen eye for finding the gaps in the field.
Unfortunately for Malaysia, the only other batting highlight was a
35-run partnership between Aishah and Alessandra Shunmugam (14) as
Malaysia finished on 82 after their 25 overs.
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| Keenu Gill |
After having been run out on the very last ball of her pivotal
innings, Aishah (2-25) came back at Hong Kong strongly taking two
wickets in her first and third over. Although another wicket fell to
Alessandra Shunmugam (4-18) in the eighth over, Malaysia were always
going to be at risk as long as Keenu Gill (27) was at the crease.
Gill, a powerful batsman, drove beautifully twice to the boundary and
punished any delivery that was short or over-pitched leaving very
little room for error for the Malaysian bowlers.
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Player of the Match: Malaysia's Alessandra
Shunmugam |
Shunmugam has a very lethargic style in bowling – the slow left-arm
bowler's approach, delivery and the flight all seem very relaxed.
However, this relaxed style led to two wickets in the 12th over, one
of which was Gill who was trapped LBW. Hong Kong didn't seem to have
any answer to Shunmugam and chaos set into the Hong Kong camp when
Manpreet Kaur was dismissed leaving Hong Kong at 59 for 7.
It soon became a question of whether Hong Kong could hold on. An
attainable target of 22 runs was needed off the last ten overs but
with seven wickets down the best of Hong Kong's batting had passed a
long time ago. Although Anastasia Yip (2* off 20 balls) and Yasmin
Daswani (10 off 14) delayed the inevitable, Malaysia were the ones who
fought harder at the death and went on to win by 2 runs.
"This is such an amazing win. Hong Kong is a strong side and our total
of 82 was well below our targeted 120 runs. Credit goes to our bowlers
and Alessandra really bowled well. Getting Keenu out was the moment we
felt we could go on and win it and we did," said Malaysian captain,
Nur Aishah.
Facing each other on the opening day, Nepal beat Malaysia by seven
wickets but will the story of the Final be any different for underdogs
Malaysia?
ACC U-19 Women's Championship
S-F 2: Hong Kong v Malaysia at Prem Oval
MALAYSIA WON BY 2 RUNS
Malaysia won the toss and elected to bat
Malaysia: 82 for 7 (N. Aishah 25; C. S. Har 2-1, D. McCusker 2-24)
Hong Kong: 80 all out off 21.1 overs (K. Gill 27; N. Aishah 2-25, A.
Shunmugam 4-18)
Player of the Match: Alessandra Shunmugam (Malaysia)
Scorecard
Filed December 22 2008
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