Malaysia makes it a trio of wins

Malaysia continued its winning ways today at Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div. 5) after the side defeated host Singapore at Kallang in a rain-affected match. The game saw wickets fall fast for the Singaporeans after rain reduced the 50-over game to 39 overs.

Ross Kneller's knock of 86 help anchor the Guernsey innings against Argentina in a game that was also shortened by rain and Duckworth-Lewis decided the result. Kneller alongside young David Hooper's spell of three wickets ensured the side beat the South Americans after the island bowled its opposition out in the required 29 overs after the target for the match was revised to 163.

Finally, Bahrain and Cayman Islands faced each other at the Indian Association ground in a game that looked destined for a washout but after a revised target, Cayman Islands pulled off a surprise victory against the Asian side to secure its first win of the tournament.

The biggest fixture of the day between local rivals Singapore and Malaysia started late and the hosts didn't seem to be troubling Malaysia early on, with the opening duo of Shafiq Sharif and Rakesh Madhavan making 77 before the in-form Shafiq departed after being caught by Chaminda Ruwan.

Things didn't look to be going well for the Malaysians, despite Madhavan anchoring the innings, with the batting line-up collapsing at Shafiq's departure. The team departed under a mixture of dismissals, some trying to hit the ball up, others caught behind while captain Suresh Navaratnam with the only player to depart the field leg-before wicket.

It was a good day behind the stumps for Chetan Suryawanshi ? the 26-year-old taking two catches and a stumping in the innings.

As the day brightened and watched by a crowd of 50 or so spectators ? Singapore took to the middle confident of chasing down the target of 185 ? but Navaratnam's men had other ideas.

Suryawanshi once again proved key at the start of the innings, the right-hander playing a variety of shots that included seven boundaries. However, the opener was not assisted by his top order, with Chaminda departing leg-before and Buddhika Mendis attempting to hit the ball up straight into the hands of former Malaysia captain Suhan Alagaratnam.

Soon after, Malaysia's spinner Ezrafiq Aziz came on to work his magic ? the 26-year-old clean bowled the in-form Suryawanshi and then tempted Kshitij Shinde to edge the ball into the safe hands of Shafiq.

The Malaysians then claimed another quick wicket after some agile fielding saw Riaz Altaff run-out ? it was then up to Anish Param and Dharmichand Mulewa to steer the innings with Singapore five down by the 14th over.

Heavy clouds hovered and held off from bursting with rain until the 30th over by which point Singapore was three runs ahead on Duckworth-Lewis par-score if it had been required. Luckily only a short interval for rain meant the match continued after a sterling effort to dry the outfield by the Kallang groundsmen.

Upon being set a revised target of 161 in 39 overs, the Singaporeans were expected to knock the total off with ease, but Malaysia had other plans in mind. The visitors capitalised on the off-breaks of Suharril Fetri as the Singaporeans panicked in making the total on its home ground.

Fetri managed three wickets in the 34th over, including all-rounder Mulewa and power-hitting captain Saad Khan and the side were bowled out for just 133.

The victory was a disappointment obviously to Singapore coach Trevor Chappell who said: "We simply let them score too many runs, plus we bowled something like 14 wides, which was just too much.

"In our response we panicked and lost quick wickets which shouldn't have done, we had the time to make the runs if we had been a bit more patient.

"Tomorrow we play Bahrain which will be a tough game, we know a bit about them but the side needs to pick itself up. We're one win down, that doesn't mean we can't win the next two matches and catch up with Malaysia or whoever is in contention for the top two spots."

Navaratnam was pleased with the side's performance particularly that of young in-form wicket-keeper batsman Shafiq: "Shafiq is a funny character, he's almost like the Virender Sehwag of our side ? when he's in-form he is on fire. He's been working really hard to improve his batting and keeping and it's paying off and hopefully it will continue to do so."

The 36-year-old admitted that tomorrow's fixture against Guernsey would not be an easy one for the side: "We played Guernsey twice obviously in Division 6 where we both came from and both times we lost to the side. We know they're dangerous on any day so tomorrow is about sticking to the basics and continuing this form and securing a win."

At the Singapore Cricket Club, heavy rain delayed the start of the match to past 11am, with the fixture ultimately reduced to 42 overs. The Guernsey side stumbled once again with its batting, albeit this time the side were not anchored by in-form Jeremy Frith but instead Ross Kneller stepped up to the plate and made a patient 86 after some poor batting by the Channel Island side and some good bowling by a rejuvenated Argentina.

Pablo Ryan used his fast bowling to tempt the Guernsey batsmen into hitting the ball up into the hands of the nimble fielders and Esteban MacDermott's side had Guernsey reeling on 4-53 by the 14th over but a middle-order led by Kneller along with Stuart Le Prevost and Ben Ferbrache enabled the island to increase its total to a more respectable 213 despite more wickets falling due to Guernsey players edging the ball into the hands of Argentina's fielders.

In reply, Argentina were 3-36 before the rains hit in the 15th over, and after a break for the downpours, the match was further reduced in overs to 29 with the target revised to 163. Upon resumption, Argentina promptly lost another wicket and the team was on 85-5 with six overs to make the target.

Ultimately, it proved too great a target for Argentina, despite a good effort from veteran batsman Grant Dugmore, along with Martin Siri and Matias Paterlini. The Argentinians struggled against Hooper's medium-pace, the 20-year-old clean bowling both Paterlini and Hernan Williams.

Frith's spin also proved useful today with the all-rounder snaffling the wickets of Gary Savage and Siri to contribute to the victory but all the bowlers proved useful today ? a fact Kneller admitted to post-match.

"The rain interruption happened when we were in a good position ? we had already taken three wickets and were keen to keep them on a low score when they were trying to chase down over 200 ? but after the rain delay I suppose we got a bit worried as the shorter the new target is the more even it becomes. That being said, we knew they needed something like 10 an over and our bowlers all did really well today to restrict Argentina."

Kneller said he knew that he had to get runs with the bat today after a disappointing performance from the top order: "We had lost four quick wickets early on and I knew going in I had a bit of pressure to bat going in alongside the skipper. I wanted to set a base so we could have wickets in hand and ultimately we got a good score and a win."

Tomorrow the side face Malaysia at Kallang, a side the team most recently beat back in September last year in WCL Div. 6 but the team are not reflecting on that win says Kneller.

"We are going in with a clean slate for this match against Malaysia. At the beginning of the week we'd never beaten Bahrain, so we went in quite fired up ? and it's what I imagine Malaysia will feel like tomorrow ? a need to put things right, but we're going into this fixture not thinking about the past fixtures and we just want to focus on a good performance to give us a good chance of promotion and a win."

In the final fixture, Cayman Islands took on Bahrain in a match where the in-form Bahrain looked set to win after Abali Hoilett's side got off to a dismal start in the tournament with two losses back to back.

The match started late at the Indian Association, however remained at 50-over for the first innings ? with Bahrain amassing a total of 208, with the help of stalwarts Adil Hanif and Tahir Dar. In-form Cayman Islander Conroy Wright once again led from the front, this time with the wicket taking and not run-making. The 26-year-old medium pacer dismissed key top order batsman Shahzad Ahmed for just three runs.

In reply, Cayman Islands got off to a good start, dismissing a newly promoted up the order Steve Gordon and captain Hoilett in the second and 18th over but then the rains came and the fate of the match would be decided also by Duckworth-Lewis. After heavy downpours at the ground, the Caribbean side was set a low target of 80 in just 21 overs - and one that wicketkeeper-batsman Omar Willis and Ramon Sealy managed to achieve for the side ? thus grasping victory from the jaws of defeat.

Hoilett said of the win: "It's really a relief to get the first win on the board. Wright once again showed for us that he's the crunch player and he's done great things for us. Hopefully now the rest of the side can follow the example he's setting and we can continue our winning ways.

"We're playing Argentina tomorrow, a side we've played a number of times and been victorious against, which is a boost obviously, but that being said we respect them as an opponent and we will go about the game with the respect it deserves, despite our record against them giving us some comfort ahead of the fixture."

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 Three)

Kallang (Target 161 after match reduced to 39 overs)

Malaysia 184 all out, 49 overs (Shafiq 48, Madhavan 77 not out; Riaz 2-19, Shoaib 2-30, Mulewa 2-30)

Singapore 133 all out, 35.5 overs (Suryawanshi 46, Param 42; Aziz 2-22, Fetri 3-8)

Malaysia won by 27 runs (D/L Method)

Man of the Match: Rakesh Madhavan (Malaysia)

Singapore Cricket Club (Target 163 after match reduced from 42 overs to 29 overs)

Guernsey 213-7, 42 overs (Kneller 86; Ryan 3-53)

Argentina 133-9, 29 overs (Dugmore 42; Hooper 3-28)

Guernsey won by 29 runs (D/L Method)

Man of the Match: Ross Kneller (Guernsey)

Indian Association (Target 80 after match reduced to 21 overs)

Bahrain 208-9, 50 overs (Adil 56, Tahir 60 not out; Wright 3-59)

Cayman Islands 83-2, 20.3 overs (Willis 37 not out)

Cayman Islands won by eight wickets (D/L Method)

Man of the Match: Tahir Dar (Bahrain)