Lanna Juniors showed the benefit of all their recent match practice, whether at junior level for Lamphun or in friendly matches against the senior Lanna side, as they surprised Floggers & Robbers with the quality of their cricket on their way to a comprehensive victory in their first league match of the season.
The margin was a comprehensive 126 runs in the match played at Gymkhana Club which was just enough to take the junior side to the top of the Chiang Mai Senior League table ahead of Chiang Mai Cricket Club on net run-rate.
Lanna Juniors captain Bunchuai was extremely confident after making an accomplished century the day before and he clearly couldn’t wait to get back to the crease so he decided to bat first on winning the toss.
Opening partner Choo was making a welcome return to cricket and he helped his captain add 31 for the first wicket before he was caught behind to give Khurram just reward for a steady opening spell. Partnerships are the key to building big totals even in 30-over matches so Chanchai needed to buckle down to support his captain.
Chanchai has recently benefited from batting alongside Ismail when playing for CMCC and he checked his attacking instincts to play himself in. Bunchuai was hitting the bad balls for four and the second-wicket pair ran well between the wickets so the score mounted quickly.
The hundred came up in the 20th over and Bunchuai showed great powers of concentration and stamina to follow yesterday’s 100 with another fifty, and the century partnership was raised as the innings came into the final stages.
Bunchuai’s fine display finally ended on 71 when he was stumped of the bowling of Max Coombes and the wickets began to tumble as Cher fell second ball and Bank was run out without facing. Chanchai was well caught by Taran Persaud for 41 as Max took his second wicket but Formot hit a pair of exquisite boundaries to take Lanna Juniors’ final total to 181 for 5.
Floggers & Robbers have a reputation for explosive strokeplay but they were soon in trouble as Cher took the wickets of Max Coombes and Andy Paps with his first two balls and the contest was virtually finished when Choo had Chris Coombes, the leading run-scorer in the league last year, caught by Formot at cover.
Cher finished with impressive figures of 3 for 7 in 4 overs, while Choo took 4 for 13 in 3 overs as Floggers & Robbers were reduced to 37 for 7. A pair of late boundaries took the score past 50 but Lang and Jo shared the last three wickets as Floggers were dismissed for 55 in the 16th over.
Lanna Juniors went to the top of the league on the basis of their victory by a remarkable 125 runs and the Floggers were taught a cricketing lesson by their juniors. This completed a marvellous week for the Lanna Juniors with a pair of victories over senior sides and a wonderful century for Bunchuai in the match they lost.
These are great signs of the growing strength of junior cricket in the neighbouring provinces of Chiang Mai and Lamphun, as the girls were also in action over the weekend on Chiang Mai’s third cricket ground in a tournament involving a side from Malaysia.