Justin Moseley – Chiang Mai

Maythais win three to stay unbeaten

A beautiful clear sunny morning greeted the start of the third day of the San Miguel Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes at the picturesque Gymkhana Club. No doubt not so clear (headed) were the participants of the first game, in which “Chops” of Australia’s Yarrambat, who had dropped two catches while fielding earlier, managed to claim a wicket and help his team win the game after their opponents the Southerners from Thailand had set a good target. The Bangkok Postels from Australia batted and ran hard, but were unable to beat the score of the Armadillos from England.  2009 Cup Holders the Bashundhara Cricketeers from Bangladesh, with tidy bowling, taking 3  wickets, and boundary-bashing batting, eclipsed the efforts of the Lords Taverners from Australia. The Perth Postels from Australia took all 6 wickets from the Irish Pub from Chiang Mai, but their seemingly easy batting task was rattled by some excellent bowling and 2 wickets taken until Michael “the Cat” Mayer calmly used his vast experience to settle the game with the necessary boundaries and accurate ball placement. The local Stuffed Beavers had a celebratory first over against the Ashwell Martlets from England by dint of Dom Hogan taking their first wicket of the tournament, and were nearly wetting themselves when Dan Chinnery took a second. However, the Beavers’ hopes of victory dried up as the Martlets contained their batting efforts. With two wins already the Maythais from Australia made it three with a convincing win over the Kiwi Taranaki Taverners.  Good batting from Socrates, a six and a catch by Trevor Chappell secured a place for the Maythais’ in the Bowl competition. Local lads Thai Thevada batted first against Blythswood from England and continued their great performance in the field to win with Gar taking 2 wickets in one over. In response to a reasonable batting score by Sa Pa from Vietnam, the Wombats started their batting well, but the run-rate slipped and they only just won with a run from the last ball. An Australian confrontation saw the Lik Lik Wombats score a massive 87 against Yarrambat. After first hitting his batting partner Lik Lik’s Brook Grumont finally found his sight and sent the next ball way behind the tents for six and continued similarly to end up hitting himself into retirement. Yarrambat, without wicket loss, just could not find the boundary enough to get close to winning. Despite fielding well the local Southerners could not stop the former Cup Winners from England the Surrey Vagrants from scoring 64, and some hard batting deserved a higher reply than the 45 they made. Another Australian battle saw the Darwin Dilettantes advance to the Bowl competition after defeating the Bangkok Postels. Wind again affected a Greek Ios Malakas game, but this time they managed a win over the English Armadillos.

Despite losing 2 wickets the Perth Postels score was more than enough to arrest the progress of the Kiwi Divine Felons – they lost 5 wickets including the vital one of Asif very early on. In the last game of the day, great fielding from the Australian Lords Taverners saw them take 3 wickets and contain a determined Darjeeling from the UAE to just 48.  Despite some tight fielding, a fine batting performance saw the Taverners secure victory.
The action continues daily this week from 9.00am until dusk with the finals on Saturday 3rd April more information, go to: www.chiangmaisixes.com.