Lanna beat CMCC by two wickets of the last ball as Arth Patel completed a fantastic debut by making an unbeaten 83 as he shared a partnership of 51 with last man Ian Harling.
Lanna enjoyed another incredible win against the might of CMCC Blues but this time it was not inspired by Luke Stokes and Leng but new heroes were found as newcomer Arth Patel guided Lanna home to a last ball victory as he was well supported by Ton with the ball then by Curly and last man Chucker with the bat, Another incredible victory for the club which could celebrate newfound strength in depth.
Arth Patel has arrived from Mumbai in India looking to make Chiang Mai a regular base during the cricket season and attended nets way back in October before returning to India. He came back this week and made it onto the field and we expected him to make an impact as a tall left-arm fast bowler. He bowled well but it was Owe Beynon captaining Lanna for the first time who took 2 for 12 with the new ball.
Curly or Ian Gason is a familiar face at Gymkhana but he is now living in Chiang Mai rather than playing in the Sixes for Tokyo Dingbats and he also bowled well as he claimed the next two wickets to reduce CMCC to 69 for 4. Ismail led the fightback as he made 60 from 38 balls and added 85 for the sixth wicket with Insha.
Ton had been improving in every match by wheregularly and Owen astutely kept him on after he had been expensive in his first two overs. The move paid dividends as Ton hit the stumps twice on his way to career best figures of 4 for 37 while Ian Harling followed a brilliant catch with a wicket as CMCC were bowled out for 221.
A target of 222 in 30 overs soon seemed far away in the absence of Luke Stokes who had hit 167 and 93* in his last two innings against CMCC. Samar dismissed the two Brians and although Shine Thomas and Leng both went for their shots Lanna were 66 for 4 in the 10th over. Things got worse as wickets continued to fall and Mario Vincent was hit in the face and had to retire hurt.
Curly came to the crease at 74 for 6 and gave Arth great support as he made 40 from 45 balls with six fours and watched Arth play some8 lovely shots as they added 97 for the seventh wicket. Insha finally dismissed Curly and Ismail caught and bowled Ton, so when last man Chucker walked to the crease with Mario tending his wounds victory still seemed a long way off.
The last man neatly guided his first ball through the slips to the boundary and then gave brilliant support to Arth who reached his fifty on debut and the target came closer and closer as he hit 8 fours and 4 sixes in a superb innings of 83*. 12 were still needed from the last over with Harling on strike but the chairman got a single and Arth did the rest. He hit 28 from his last eight balls and his final boundary brought victory off the last ball and also brought up the fifty partnership.
Another excellent match and an amazing victory for Lanna,