Justin Moseley " Chiang Mai

Thai Thevada and Irish Pub shine again

It was “pistols at dawn” (or more likely “pissed at dawn”) for the first match of the day between the Gloucestershire Gipsies from England and the Perth Postels from Australia, two of the main Cup contenders, on the fourth day of the San Miguel Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes.  The Gipsies batted first, but solid bowling from the Postels kept the score to 55. However, tight bowling from the Gipsies restricted the Postels to 54, who were unlucky not to just scrape a win after a tense final over. In the second Cup game the Shanghai Hot Dogs overcame the Romany Martlets.

In the Plate competition, Sa Pa from Vietnam, going for their first ever win at the Sixes, scored 68, which proved too much for South Africans Almar to overcome, despite a valiant attempt in the final over. Some initial good bowling from the Lords Taverners Postels proved too much for the Taranaki Taverners, but all credit to them for actually scoring more runs off the bat. In a battle of animal pride for the Spoon, the Wombats again batted magnificently and easily won against the Stuffed Beavers.  Not scoring enough off the bat was the problem for the Gymkhana Cavaliers as they went down to Ios Malakas.  

In a Gulf-state battle for the Bowl, Darjeeling from the UAE scored a respectable 78, a target the Awali Taverners from Bahrain were unable to match. Even after some brilliant fielding from Chai prevented more boundaries, the Darwin Dilettantes expected their score of 74 to be enough to win against the young local lads of Thai Thevada.  However, the most effective boundary-blasting partnership of Gun and Tong, who had knocked the winning six in a game the previous day, helped the Thai team to a most popular win against the much older and experienced Australian side.

In the Shield competition, despite a fine 35 retired from Avi, the Armadillos could not take any wickets or prevent a win by the Tokyo Wombats.  In the other Shield game, the Yorkshire Puddings suffered four catches during their innings, but a 31 from Amal Silva helped their victory over the Southerners. 

The Spoon games saw the ferocious Wombats gnaw a win over the Udon Thani Steakies and climb to the top of their group after scoring 82, and the Ios Malakas beat the Maythais. 

The Cup competition continued with an exciting clash between the Bashundhara Cricketeers from Bangladesh and the Irish Pub from Chiang Mai.  The Irish Pub batted first and after losing Wannie (still the only man in the tournament to have hit a Big 10), went on to score 85 after many boundaries. The Cricketeers replied with a vengeance, but, despite some great hits and scoring three sixes in the final over, their loss of four wickets proved too much of a hurdle to beat the currently unbeaten Irish Pub. In the final Cup game of the day the Warathais, led by former Australian test player Trevor Chappell, faced the Divine Felons from New Zealand.  The Warathais scored 73 from batting first, but the Divine Felons could only score 49. 

Play resumes at 9.00am today, with finals on Saturday 4th April - for more information, check out www.chiangmaisixes.com.