Lanna are defending champions of the Chiang Mai Senior League and they had already won their first match in the 2015/16 season but their hopes of winning the league again met with a serious setback as Lanna were beaten by seven wickets by Lamphun. Lanna had been restricted to 161 for 9 from 30 overs by some tidy bowling with only Martin Cardno able to break free as he posted another fifty, and Bunchuai made 60 to put his side well on the way to victory.
Lamphun won the toss and had no hesitation in asking Lanna to bat and the openers found it difficult to get the ball away on a spongy wicket. The pressure applied by some accurate bowling finally told as Sem Mehta was run out for nought in the fifth over. Chris Coombes raised the tempo with an innings of 18 but Adam Green hit only two fours in his 27 from 41 before becoming the second victim of a run out.
Hamish Weir and Shine Thomas fell in quick succession so Lanna were in trouble at 62 for 5 at the halfway stage of their innings. Just as Richard Cowles looked to be helping Cardno to build a useful recover Choo took two wickets in an over as Cowles was out for 16 and Pete Warner fell for a duck.
101 for 7 from 23 overs was not a healthy position even with Walter Presaud in at number 9 and at 135 for 9 from 28 overs the innings was in terminal decline but Martin Cardno finally luunched an all out assault and he was able to take 26 from the last two overs as he finished unbeaten on 68.
Given that the innings had never got into full flow a total of 161 for 9 was not a bad result but Lanna needed early wickets to put pressure on Lamphun but this was not the case as Bunchuai and Chanchai added 68 for the first wicket with Chanchai hitting five fours in his 36 before he was lbw to Hugh Williams.
Champ came in to play steadily but Bunchuai had played himself in and began to play his shots so that the 100 came up in the 14th over and Lamphun were well ahead of the rate. Bunchuai reached his fifty from 48 balls and although he was caught by Chairman Tom from the leg-spin of Hamish Weir the score had reached 133 for 3 in the 22nd over.
With Bunchuai back in the pavilion Lanna finally sensed they had a chance to snatch victory and Martin Cardno took the ball to bowl in tandem with the leg-spinner with fields brought in to build pressure on Lamphun’s middle-order. Choo and Por survived a severe test to see their side home to victory by seven wickets with 2.4 overs to spare.
It had been another significant victory for Lamphun with Bunchuai again leading the way but Lanna had paid the price for not making a good start to their innings and then failing to take early wickets when Lamphun batted. Not an ideal birthday present for Captain Pete or for Shine but there was plenty of Leo consumed to help drown the team’s sorrows.