Bhutan won by eight wickets.
China chose to bat after winning the toss. Bhutan’s pace bowlers, Dorji and Dilip, swung the ball considerably but the batsmen held firm. Yang Haiming, China’s left-hander, played a memorable cover-drive and, with his captain Du Jinlong, put on 48 for the second wicket off 50 deliveries.
Little Susil Sharma broke their stand, catching Du Jinlong off his own bowling. China’s batsmen found Sharma’s mixed bag of off-spin, the occasional leg-break, coupled with yorkers speared in at pace, very hard to play. Bhutan’s fielders didn’t support their team as well as they would have liked with some fumbles in the outfield and two dropped catches, but the bowlers kept getting wickets. China was all out for 113 in the 30th over, having collapsed from 56 for 1.
In reply, Jigme reached his 50 off 39 deliveries, playing shots all around the park. The Myanmar team came to practice at the Prem nets adjacent to the ground and, before they started, sat to watch the end of this match. “Give us a 6, captain,” they called out to Jigme. He gave them a 4 through backward square.
Earlier, on December 8, Bhutan beat China by a massive 200 runs. Man of the match, Dilip Suba, took four wickets for 11 runs. Bhutan’s second match on December 10 against Myanmar ended with a similar facile victory, beating them by seven wickets. Captain Jigme Singye took five wickets at the cost of only nine runs.
Susil Sharma won Man of the Match for his five wickets against China on Friday, but it was Jigme Singye, who China had most trouble with. “It’s up there with my top 10 innings,” said Jigme afterwards. A scholar at the Prem School since last year, he said, “It’s nice to play so well on your home ground.”
He’ll have to play well in Bangkok too if Bhutan are to win the tournament. Bhutan will play Myanmar again on December 13. Their opponents in the semi-final will be Qatar or the Maldives. Source: Kuenselonline
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