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Kathmandu Saturday October 13, 2001 Ashwin 27, 2058.
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Oman, Malaysia revive semifinal hopes
Post Report
LALITPUR, Oct 12 - Oman, Maldives, Malaysia and Qatar, who after having lost
the opening matches in their pool yesterday, knew that only a win could keep their hopes
of the championship semifinals alive.
At the end of the day it was Oman and Malaysia who put behind the
opening’s days hiccups to revive their chances with comprehensive win over Maldives
and Qatar in the respective matches of Pool A and B held at the Engineering Institute
grounds on Friday.
The Oman - Maldives match, which could only start over an hour later because
of due laden wicket in the ground A, finished in quick time as the Maldivians fell down
like nine pins.
Invited to bat first, Maldives at no stage found the conditions easy and lost
wickets at regular intervals. Oman’s strike bowler Rustan Ali Khan spelled early
devastation as he removed opener Ahmad Hasan and his replacement Abdullah Iyad in two
successive balls to leave Maldives reeling with no run on board. Three more batsmen
returned to the pavilion without scoring.
Although Sharfraz Hafiz (16) and Mohammed Azlee (13) fought valiantly for
their runs that was never good enough to resist Oman bowlers as they tumbled to a paltry
80 runs in 22 overs.
Adnan Ilyas claimed three wickets while Jamil Ibrahim and Nigel Kuriakose,
like speedster Khan returned two wickets.
In reply, Oman made a steady start and accumulated the required 81 runs in
just 17.1 overs with seven wickets to spare.
Maldives allrounder Abdullah Iyadh removed Abbas Jawad (2) and Jamil Balusi
for nought. But Rustam Ali Khan returned with the bat to score 37 unbeaten runs to take
Oman home. He was adjudged man of the match for his all-round performance.
That instantly brought cheers back on the face of Oman team manager
Madhusudan Sampat. "I had faith in my boys that they will put behind yesterday’s
loss," he said after the match. "And I am happy that they did it in style. So we
still stand a chance to make it to the last four."
In the other match, Qatar choked yet again after they had Malaysia totally
under control to lose by whopping 94 runs at the end.
Malaysia, who won the toss for the second consecutive day, opted to bad
unlike yesterday when they put the opposition in.
Things did not go as smoothly as they would have liked. Mohammad Azhar could
only nick a moving delivery of Sarmad Faisal and was caught behind by the wicketkeeper
immediately after hitting a four off the same bowler at 11.
Subramani Gopinath also found it difficult to repeat the yesterday’s
form as he played a straightening Amin Ullah Khan delivery all over only to find his
stumps castled after scoring 17.
However, Malaysia found in Suria Prakash Ganesan what they most required at
the time. He made reasonably light work of their task, steadying the innings even as
wickets continued to fell around him with the Qatar bowlers Amin Ullah Khan, Mohammad
Emran and Walimuni Migara tightening their grip.
From a shaky 25-2, he raised the total to a respectable 186 before he fell to
Amin Ullah as the ninth Malaysian wicket. But it was not before he put up brave 51 runs (5
x 4) and shared a match winning 67-run stand with Maarof Radzi to frustrate the Qatar
bowlers.
Suria Prakash was entirely focused on his job. "I knew what I had to do
and how to do it," he said with a man of the match trophy on his hand.
He also said that Malaysia would be getting back to their grooves to remain
as one of the favourites in the competition. "Some of our batsmen threw their wickets
needlessly. But I’m sure we’ll come across that when we play UAE tomorrow,"
he added.
Radzi, demonstrating his driving skills hit as many as four boundaries and a
towering six over the long on to remain unbeaten at 44 as Malaysia closed their innings at
199 in their allotted 50 overs.
Qatar made a solid start as their openers sharing a 50-run stand. But things
went awfully wrong thereafter.
Walimuni Migara (15) was first to go out caught by Arul Suppiah off the
bowling of Raymond
Sam and Mohammad Athar followed him to the pavilion two runs later.
Khuram Ajmal (29) tried to resist the Malaysian bowlers with a few lofty
shots but the pace-spin variation of Suppiah, Gopinath and Mohammad Razman coupled with
some brilliant pieces of fielding proved simply too much for Qatar. And they were bowled
out for 105 in 32.4 overs. In the process, Malaysia affected as many as three run outs,
and removed four opposition batsmen for duck.
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