Lanna Thais were in confident mood following their victory over Lanna on Saturday but they were facing a CMCC side which was standing at the top of the league table as well as being unbeaten in 25-over friendlies throughout the season. Lanna Thais’ victorious team from the day before had been strengthened by the inclusion of Richard Cowles, Jon Scales and Elliot Lodge so hopes were high that CMCC’s winning run could be brought to an end.
CMCC won the toss and as usual chose to bat first but their openers were held in check by Cher and Jun who again bowled well with the new ball. Elliot Lodge was brought on first change and took a wicket in his first over as Jigar was caught by Cher for 8. Jun completed his 6 overs for 28 but Siddhart and Tanvir were able to accelerate against the bowling of Jon Scales and Richard Cowles.
Siddhart was run out just after reaching his fifty but with Tanvir and Ismail at the crease with 10 overs to go CMCC looked set for a really big total but Matt Bray claimed both with his off-spin, Ismail lbw for 26 and Tanvir well caught by Yot off a full toss for 66, Elliot returned to claim two more wickets and Cher and Jon also bowled well at the end of the innings.
Only 28 runs came off the last five overs for the loss of four wickets but a total of 215 for 7 in 30 overs was still a substantial score for CMCC and Lanna Thais would have to bat well to have a chance of victory.. Luckily Martin Cardno was a man in form after making 97* the previous day and his partner Burhan was a man inspired against his former team-mates.
Shoaib bowled well with the new ball but Ismail saved his other main bowlers for the second half of the innings so Cardno and Burhan were able to score at a healthy rate against some rather friendly bowling. Lanna Thais’ openers had posted 120 on the scoreboard at the halfway stage and only 96 more were required in the second half of the innings.
The challenge suddenly became harder as Ismail brought himself on to bowl but it was Tanvir who claimed the first wicket with a shooter as Cardno fell lbw for 77 again falling short of the century he had been aiming for. Burhan fell soon afterwards as he was bowled by Asif who would have rarely been used as the ninth bowler and didn’t seem amused by his demotion.
Richard Cowles is a classy player when he has time to play himself in and Jon Scales had made 86 the day before and they were able to keep Lanna Thais up with the rate even against CMCC’s better bowlers. Shoaib finally had Jon caught behind fr 18 and Jun soon followed bowled by Tanvir for 3 to make the score 208 for 4 with 8 runs needed from 9 balls.
Matt Bray strode to the crease and had an immediate impact as he raced off for a single first ball and Tanvir conceded four overthrows as he went for the run out. Cowles then hit the next ball for four and a thrilling match had been won by Lanna Thais by six wickets.
CMCC are still top of the three-team league with three wins from four matches, but Lanna Thais are now in second place with two wins out of four and Lanna third with one win in four matches. With three more matches still to come there is still all to play for in the Chiang Mai Senior League