Justin Moseley " Chiang Mai

Sam Gilmour stars for the Warathais

After the most enjoyable Pig-Picking event on Wednesday evening, which included an excellent live band, the San Miguel Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes commenced its fifth day

In the Shield games, the Floggers & Robbers just could not take anything from Sixes Cup holders, the Surrey Vagrants, whose strong batting and fielding was dominant, and the Yorkshire Puddings proved superior to the Armadillos. 

In the first Bowl game, Yarrambat made a strong batting start in their match against the Drifters, but tight bowling from Alan “Tubby” Jenner, a good wicket taken by Jon Pike and a fine catch from ex-Sri Lankan test team star Lantra Fernando restricted the score to 60. The Drifters batting very nearly collapsed when Fernando was caught and bowled and Yarrambat’s captain Daniel Shaw clean-bowled Martin Papworth for a duck, but the level-headed partnership of Pike and Howe held on to ensure a narrow victory.  Darjeeling scored 63 against the young Thai Thevada lads, who put on a good display again, but could only score 56.

In the Cup the Perth Postels held the Shanghai Hot Dogs to 43 and followed by scoring the 44 required in just three overs.  In the second Cup game the Warathais batted first and the Irish Pub initially bowled and fielded well, but in the exciting final over Sam Gilmore whacked four magnificent sixes, a four and ran a two, which took the score to 80 off the bat (no extras at all in the whole innings).  In their response, the Irish Pub were helped to their winning score by some unfortunate wide balls (37 extras in total) and, despite some magnificent batting, the game ended rather feebly when they seemed to choose not to take an easy single and the Warathais’ ex-Australian test cricketer Trevor Chappell bowled wide to lift the Irish Pub score to 84.  The Gloucestershire Gipsies score of 72 was too much for the Romany Martlets.  In the last Cup game the Divine Felons started with a great six by Asif, but only managed 45 after effective fielding from their opponents the Bashundhara Cricketeers, who had few problems surpassing that score.  

Spoon games saw Blythswood beat the Stuffed Beavers, who kept Jenny the Duck Lady busy as three batsmen failed to score, and the Bangkok Postels were victorious against the Gymkhana Cavaliers.  The Wombats remained undefeated and in their victory over the Maythais it was remarkable that their batting order produced the same pairings as in 1988, while the Udon Thani Richmond Steakies proved too tough for the Ios Malakas

In an exciting finale to the game in the Plate against Sa Pa, needing 4 runs to win from the last ball, the Taranaki Taverners got just that with a boundary. In the other Plate game, the Lords Taverners Postels beat Almar. 

The final game of the day was the ladies’ cricket and the Thai Angels beat the AA Thai Pixies and it was great to see such enthusiasm from the players.

There should be some very exciting games today, with knockouts that will decide who progresses to the semi-finals and finals. Play resumes at 9.00am today and finals are tomorrow - for more information, check out www.chiangmaisixes.com.