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Kathmandu Sunday October 14, 2001 Ashwin 28, 2058.
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Malaysia beat UAE to top Pool ‘A’
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Oct 13 – Malaysia entered the semi-finals of the Youth Asia
Cup 2001 topping the Pool A by virtue of their comprehensive 7-wicket win against United
Arab Emirates (UAE) in the match played at the Tribhuvan University Ground on Saturday.
Malaysia will face Singapore, who finished second in Pool B, in the
semi-final match to be played at the Engineering Institute Ground A on Monday.
UAE qualified as runner up from Pool A and will face Pool B topper Nepal at
Tribhuvan University Ground on Monday.
Despite a wobbly start, Malaysia reached home safely scoring the required 80
runs losing three wickets in 29.4 overs.
The Malaysian chase started on a perilous note as opener Subramani Gopinath
went without troubling the scorers. He fell prey to the first ball of the innings, edging
it to the UAE ‘keeper off Fahad Afdal’s bowling.
The batsman to follow, Ganeshan Suriyaprakash, teamed up with Mohammed Azhar
Zainal to establish a 38-run stand easing the pressure off Malaysian middle order. The
steady partnership came to an end as Suriaprakash was trapped leg before to Sameer Zia.
Zainal, on the other hand, held up one end and was the last batsman to
go—just four runs short of victory—with 26 runs to his credit. His patient
innings was of 85 balls which included two beautiful hits to the fence.
His partner, after the fall of Suriaprakash, Noor Ikhwan Roslee effected some
lusty blows to the UAE bowlers. He finished with 27 runs, which contained three boundaries
and a six.
Earlier, Arul Vivasyan—Malaysian skipper—displayed spin bowling at
its best wrecking the UAE middle order. Vivasyan, in a tight spell of eight overs,
returning with a match haul of three for 12 and a man of the match award, forcing UAE
innings to end on 79 in 28.2 overs.
UAE, already on the backfoot after losing two wickets in the consecutive
balls of second over, never seemed like recovering from the initial shock. Mohammed Raznan
Zabri, in his first over, the match’s second, took the wickets of Amir Hussein and
Farook Abbas Kazmi—both openers—to send UAE reeling at 13 for two.
The best partnership of the match was for the third wicket when Naeemuddin
and Sameer Zia contributed 16 runs. Naeemuddin was the only batsman who could play with
some authority against the Malaysian spinners finishing the match with 29 runs. His was
the eighth wicket to fall.
Manager of the UAE team, Mansoor Pasha, blamed the batting failure as the
main reason behind his team’s dismal performance. "The inexperience of the boys
is also one of the reasons for our downfall," said Pasha, adding that their batting
is yet to click on the tour. "We have talented batsmen and we hope that they will get
going in the matches to come."
On the other hand, jubiliant coach of the Malaysian side was all praise for
his boys. "Our boys gave their hundred percent, bowling and fielding well," said
Sarath Jayawardena.
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