The Bhutanese men’s cricket team ended their ICC World Cricket League Division One Asia Qualifier tournament in Thailand, after a defeat against Bahrain, yesterday.
Bhutan elected to field first after winning the toss and Bahrain, who finished third in the tournament was in all sorts of trouble when their opening Batsman Imran Ali Butt went back to the pavilion without troubling the score board.
Bhutan’s Thinley Jamtsho delivered impressively to get rid of the wicket keeper batsman.
He also went on to claim the wickets of the rest of top five Bahraini batsmen. Bahrain looked in all sorts of trouble at 39 runs for six wickets when middle order batsman Tahir Dar put on a sturdy innings, helping to take his team’s total past the hundred run mark.
After dismissing Tahir Dar on 68 runs, Bhutan breezed past Bahrain’s tail-enders, bowling them out for 154 runs. Thinley Jamtsho ended with figures of six wickets, conceded just 38 runs in his 10 overs.
On course to chase the target of 155 runs, Bhutan was dealt with a heavy blow as two batsmen were dismissed in the space of the first three overs. Then, stepped in ThinleyJamtsho, who after an inspired bowling performance, countered Bahraini bowling attack with his bat.
At 60 runs for the loss of two wickets, Bhutan looked on course to redeem some pride in the tournament. Then disaster struck. ThinleyJamtsho was dismissed on 42 runs and five batsmen followed him to the pavilion in the space of just nine runs.
From 60 for two, Bhutan was bowled out with just 99 runs on the board. With the tournament over and just a win against China to take away from the six matches played, the national team coach, Damber Gurung said, “I think we showed to the world that we have potential and can play better cricket. In fact we played well compared to previous tournaments. In next two years of time, I promise we will be winning matches”.
The Qatari cricket team edged Saudi Arabia to win the tournament, courtesy of better net run-rate. Hosted by the Cricket Association of Thailand, the tournament was the global pathway for qualification into the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
