Bovell and Hall guide Cayman Islands to second win
A fine bowling spell from Ryan Bovell and strong batting from Ainsley Hall ensured Cayman Islands continued its winning streak at Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) when the side defeated Argentina by a comprehensive 10 wickets to ensure the team's second win of the event.
Host Singapore bounced back from yesterday's defeat to Malaysia to beat Bahrain at the Singapore Cricket Club by 102 runs while Malaysia took on fellow WCL Div. 6 qualifiers Guernsey at Kallang, where the Channel Island was defeated in a closely fought contest by just four runs.
Cayman Islands continued its winning record against Argentina in Pepsi ICC World Cricket League events when the Americas sides took each other on at the Indian Association Ground.
Abali Hoilett's side loss the toss and were put into field, a decision Argentina captain Esteban MacDermott may have regretted after the side were bundled out for 93 runs in the 37th over of the game.
The batsman to contribute any runs of note, and even then just 22, was veteran opener Grant Dugmore as the entire middle-order collapsed to the bowling from pace duo Conroy Wright and Ryan Bovell. Bovell proving to be the pick of the bowlers, with the 38-year-old policeman claiming five wickets for just nine runs - he claimed the key wickets of Pablo Ferguson, Matias Paterlini and Martin Siri.
The in-form Wright, a warehouse manager on Grand Cayman, dismissed both Dugmore and Lucas Paterlini. The Argentines failed to perform once again with the bat and were all out well before lunch.
After a brief interlude, Argentina took to the field with Cayman Islands openers Steve Gordon and Ainsley Hall tasked with knocking off the runs. The pair completed some 62 runs without loss in the 14 overs before lunch and post the innings break Hall completed his half-century off 58 balls in a steady batting display by the 39-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman.
Man of the match Bovell said: "We came into this match confident we could beat Argentina, especially since our past performances were so strong against the side. We did well against them today and it's a positive to now have two wins under our belt.
"Looking ahead to Friday, this boost is definitely good for us especially since we're playing a good Guernsey side, hopefully we can spring a few surprises on them."
A disappointed Argentina coach Toby Bailey said: "We didn't bat to our full potential, but that being said we came up against a very good bowling attack. We always knew we would struggle against Cayman Islands today and going into this tournament I asked the guys to think about whether we even deserved to be in Division 5, especially since Argentina has not won a match since Division 2, a number of years ago.
"Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday it's about being positive with the team and giving debuts to those new guys coming through the side as that's important for the development of Argentina cricket in the long run."
At Kallang, Malaysia took on fellow WCL Div. 6 finalists Guernsey and the side's batting slipped up against another strong performance with the ball from Jamie Nussbaumer and David Hooper.
Having won the toss, Suresh Navaratnam elected to bat hoping to make a hefty total that Guernsey would struggle to chase down but ultimately the target set was too few by the Malaysians.
The youth of Nussbaumer and Hooper combined with veteran off-spinner Gary Rich to work its way through the Malaysian batting line-up. Nussbaumer dismissed in-form opener Shafiq Sharif early on and despite some run making by the top-order, Hooper and Rich combined with all-rounder Jeremy Frith to dismiss the Malaysians for 194.
In reply, Guernsey's GH Smit led the run-scoring after an early departure from Tim Ravenscroft after the young batsman edged the ball through to Shafiq. Frith joined proceedings only to be hit in the face with a short ball on his first delivery after the 34-year-old attempted to duck from a delivery by Navaratnam, despite that he managed 29 runs before being run out by Anwar Arudin.
Ralalage made light work of Guernsey's middle order, clean bowling Ben Ferbrache, Hooper and Tom Kimber - leaving Ross Kneller and Nussbaumer to try and steer Guernsey to victory. Kneller departed after some fine strokes, leaving Nussbaumer and Bisson to play out a patient innings and try to continue Guernsey's winning form against the fellow WCL Div. 6 qualifying side.
Things began to slide when Bisson departed on 17, leaving the side nine down with seven to get with Nussbaumer and Rich at the crease and despite a valiant effort by the two Guernsey players, Nussbaumer was clean bowled by the fine fast bowling of Ralalage leaving him on match figures of 4-28.
Ralalage was delighted with his four wickets and the win against Guernsey: "I have to say, it's not easy bowling on the wicket here at Kallang, it's very much a batting wicket and I just made sure I bowled in the right areas today and batsmen made the mistakes. I wasn't in the squad last year in Division 6 so I hadn't played Guernsey before today, so it feels great to have helped secure a win for the side.
"I had good confidence from today's game and I stuck to the basics with luck on my side, they gave us a challenge today - we really just want to win the championship and qualify for Division 4 - we've got a strong side with batting, bowling and fielding so I think it's possible."
Guernsey captain Stuart Le Prevost was hugely disappointed with the loss: "It's gutting to have lost to Malaysia today. I think we lost it early on with our batting performance - myself and Frith got run out - due to poor calls by us, it's unfair to leave it to the tail enders, it may have worked for us in Malaysia but you can't do that every time.
"The top order hasn't fired all week so far, we have varied the opening partnerships but they haven't fired, leaving it to five and six or even six and seven in the batting line-up to make things work for us but that's where we are losing at the moment. We're doing well with bowling and fielding and it was a chasable target, but our top order batting let us down again."
Le Prevost admitted Cayman Islands on Friday was a game to be treated with respect, adding: "We go into every game to win and we don't take any opposition lightly; we will face Cayman Islands with respect. We've got a day off tomorrow and hopefully that gives us time to get over the defeat before we bounce back for Friday's game."
Finally, at SCC, Singapore bounced back from defeat yesterday at Kallang to defeat fellow Asian side Bahrain.
The hosts set the Bahrainis a decent target of 206 after 50 overs, the innings of Singapore being guided by Chaminda Ruwan and Anish Param after early departures by top order batsmen Buddhika Mendis and Chetan Suryawanshi.
The lower order did not sparkle with the bat today as it had attempted to the day before and Bahrain's in-form all-rounder Tahir Dar took two wickets while Anasim Khan's bowling sent Chetan and Param packing during the innings.
In reply, Bahrain struggled to make runs with Adil Hanif anchoring the Middle Eastern side's innings with 57 runs before he departed from having his stumps flattened by the in-form Shoib Razzak.
Shoib worked his magic early on in the innings and combining with captain Saad Khan who cleaned up the tailenders, the Bahrainis were all out for just 103 runs at the Padang much to the delight of the Singaporean supporters. The win has placed Singapore into second place on the tournament points table while the loss has pushed Bahrain into the relegation zone.
Tomorrow is a rest day, with play resuming on Friday.
Live scores for all the fixtures can be followed at www.icc-cricket.com
The results table can be viewed here.
The full schedule for WCL Div. 5 can be found here
Scores in brief (Day Four)
Kallang
Malaysia 194 all out, 50 overs (Aziz 30, Navaratnam 31; Nussbaumer 3-27, Hooper 3-38)
Guernsey 190 all out, 49.2 overs (Kneller 47; Ralalage 4-28)
Malaysia won by four runs
Man of the match: Hiran Ralalage (Malaysia)
Singapore Cricket Club
Singapore 205-8, 50 overs (Chaminda 69, Param 52; Tahir 2-30)
Bahrain 103 all out, 29.5 overs (Adil 57; Saad 4-10. Shoaib 4-37)
Singapore won by 102 runs
Man of the match: Saad Khan (Singapore)
Indian Association
Argentina 93 all out, 37.2 overs (Dugmore 22; Bovell 5-9, Wright 3-19)
Cayman Islands 94-0, 22.1 overs (Hall 62 not out, Gordon 25 not out)
Cayman Islands won by 10 wickets
Man of the Match: Ryan Bovell (Cayman Islands)