BHUTAN LOST TO QATAR, BUT STILL MAKES TO SEMI FINAL

Bhutan in the semi final of ACC U15 Challange Cup 2006, Thailand despite losing to Qatar.

A skillful game of cricket ended today, at Prem Tinsulanonda ground, in Qatar's favour, as they ran out easy winners over Bhutan by 101 runs: a score that may not highlight the expertness of the Bhutanese bowling execution today.

Sajjad drives majestically for a boundary

Coming into this game, Bhutan knew the opposition inside out, especially Tamoor Sajjad (37), and the damage he can cause. What would have been a turning point in the game occurred in only the second ball when Sajjad, uncharacteristically, nicked a ball to the slips. The speed of pace man Thinley Jamtsho (0-34), plus the touch, was a little too much for Captain Jigme Singye in the slips as he squandered, what was, a vital chance.

Thinley Jamthso

The opening overs saw Qatar face, undoubtedly, their toughest bowling attack, as Jamtsho and Dilip Subba (0-29) bowled out of their skins to contain the batsmen. Sajjad and Mohammed Taha (18) were held down, maybe even a little surprised, by the pace and accuracy from Bhutan, as Qatar were now tested for the first time in this tournament.

The bowling of Bhutan may have been close to perfection at the start but the fielding, at times, let them down. A clear run out opportunity missed and a few fielding errors that led to boundaries would've been something they could've tightened up on.

Lakshmi Prasad Kami: Bowling over opponents

Although these errors were committed, the energy levels of the Bhutanese never dimmed. The on-field buzz saw results when the change in bowling attack put Qatar in a tight spot when Lakshmi Kami (4-36) , after his five-wicket haul in the previous game, picked up two wickets in consecutive balls and Pema Thinley (3-48), got one, in their opening overs.

The jubilation of the previous three wickets was nothing in comparison to when Thinley trapped danger-man Sajjad LBW soon after with the score at 64-4.

Bhutan celebrate the wicket of Sajjad

The first batting highlight in the game came when Fahad Ghulam (81) slammed three fours in one over. Bhutan were definitely not going to be outdone after all their work and Thinley and Kami bounced back to take one and two more wickets respectively.

Ghulam rushes for a second run

From here on in, the innings turned slowly in favour of Qatar as Ghulam smashed twelve fours and two sixes to get his total score from 68 balls and along with Abdul Rehman (24) put on, what was most definitely, the match-winning 91 – run partnership. Qatar soon went on to lose those two wickets and finished, considering how they started, at a very satisfying 213 – 9 in 40 overs.

Qatar Captain Tamoor Sajjad

Bhutan are a team not well-known for their batting performances and this showed when Kinley Wangchuk (0) fell in only the second over, courtesy of a well-taken catch in the slips by Captain Tamoor Sajjad. Sanjeevan Gurung (9) and Kencho Norbu (22) were the masterminds behind some beautiful stroke play before Norbu fell victim to the spot-on bowling of Pradeep Kumar (1-19).

Beautiful shots may have been present, but Bhutan would've preferred it if their batsmen stayed long enough to play more like them – a combination of very good and very poor batting all at once. Two quick wickets fell as Thinley Jamtsho (1) was bowled by Sajjad (3-19) and Norbu was unluckily dismissed when his bat may have nicked the ground and not the ball as he was given out caught behind.

Bhutanese Captain Jigme Singye (25) and Anand Chettri (8) made a quick fire 31-run partnership as Singye made his score of a speedy 16 balls. None of the lower order batsmen were able to put in any strong performances and Bhutan were once again all bowled out. This time the bottom order collapsed to both Sajjad and Ali Ishtiaq (3-18) in the next seven overs for a total score of 112 after 23 overs leaving Qatar the winners by 101 runs.

Fahad Ghulam: A match-winner

For a match-winning contribution of 81 runs, Fahad Ghulam took home the Man of the Match award.

Bhutan v Qatar at Prem, Chiang Mai
Qatar won the toss and elected to bat
QATAR WON BY 101 RUNS
Qatar: 213 – 9 in 40 overs (T. Sajjad 37, F. Ghulam 81; L. Kami 4-36, P. Thinley 3-48)
Bhutan: 112 all out after 23 overs (T. Sajjad 3-19, A. Ishtiaq 3-18)

Man of the Match: Fahad Ghulam (Qatar)

ACC Under-15 Challenge Cup 2006
Match Report

Match: Bhutan vs. Qatar
Played At: Prem School
Date: 18 December 2006
Captains: Jigme Singye (Bhutan), Tamoor Sajjad (Qatar)
Toss won by: Qatar
Elected to: Bat

Umpires: Mr. Sujit Kumar Ghosh, Mr. Ahmed Hussain
Scorers: Miss Hamidah Ramlan

Result: Qatar won by 101 runs

Man of the Match: Fahad Ghulam

INNINGS OF: Qatar (SIDE BATTING FIRST)

No.	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
1	Tamoor Sajjad	lbw	PEMA THINLEY	37	47	6	-
2	Muhammed Taha	bowled	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	18	38	1	-
3	Dharmang Patel	bowled	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	0	1	-	-
4	Faizan Ahmed	lbw	PEMA THINLEY	0	3	-	-
5	Faisal Rauf	ct DILIP SUBBA	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	9	28	1	-
6	Fahad Ghulam	ct LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	Nar Bahadur Burathoki Mongar	81	68	12	2
7	Rahul Ramesh	bowled	PEMA THINLEY	8	5	1	-
8	Shahbaz Khan	ct ANAND CHHETRI	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	8	8	1	-
9	Abdul Rehman	run out		24	89	-	-
10	Ali Ishtiaq	not out		7	3	1	-
11	Pradeep Kumar	not out		1	2	-	-
Extras: NB - 2 / Wides- 19 / Byes - 2 / L.Byes - 0 / Penalties -				23	242	23	2
Provisional Score for Innings ....				190
Penaliteis Awarded in Other Innings ....				-
Final Score for 9 Wkts				213

Fall of Wickets	1/53	2/53	3/54	4/64	5/80	6/90	7/113	8/205	9/205	10/
Batsman No.	2	3	4	1	5	7	8	6	9
Overs	12.3	12.4	13.3	15.6	20.1	21.3	24.1	38.6	39.2

BOWLING ANALYSIS

No.	Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Wides	N.B.
1	THINLEY JAMTSHO	8	-	34	0	3	1
2	DILIP SUBBA	8	-	29	0	2	-
3	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	9	1	36	4	4	-
4	PEMA THINLEY	8	1	48	3	1	-
5	JIGME SINGYE	4	-	23	0	1	-
6	ANAND CHHETRI	2	-	21	0	3	-
7	Nar Bahadur Burathoki Mongar	2	-	20	1	1	1
8

INNINGS STARTED AT: 10.00 AM, CLOSED AT: 12.57 PM

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INNINGS OF: X (SIDE BATTING SECOND)

No.	Batsman	How Out	Bowler	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
1	SANJEEVAN RAJ GURUNG	lbw	Pradeep Kumar	9	23	1	-
2	KINLEY WANGCHUK	ct Tamoor Sajjad	Abdul Rehman	0	1	-	-
3	KENCHO NAMGAY	ct Muhammed Taha	Rahul Ramesh	22	85	3	-
4	JIGME SINGYE	ct & b	Tamoor Sajjad	25	16	4	-
5	THINLEY JAMTSHO	bowled	Tamoor Sajjad	1	4	-	-
6	ANAND CHHETRI	run out	-	8	25	-	-
7	DILIP SUBBA	bowled	Ali Ishtiaq	7	13	-	-
8	DECHEN WANGCHUK	bowled	Tamoor Sajjad	1	5	1	-
9	PEMA THINLEY	ct	Ali Ishtiaq	2	7	-	-
10	Nar Bahadur Burathoki Mongar	not out	-	7	8	1	-
11	LAKSHMI PRASAD GAJMER	wk Muhammed Taha	Ali Ishtiaq	8	5	2	-
Extras: NB -4 / Wides- 17 / Byes - 0 / L.Byes - 1 / Penalties -				22		12	-
Provisional Score for Innings ....				90
Penaliteis Awarded in Other Innings ....				-
Final Score for 10 Wkts				112

Fall of Wickets	1/1	2/37	3/48	4/49	5/80	6/91	7/93	8/95	9/96	10/112
Batsman No.	2	1	3	5	4	6	8	7	9	11
Overs	1.1	9.1	20.1	11.5	15.5	18./2	19.2	20.2	20.6	22.6

Bowling Analysis

No.	Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Wides	N.B.
1	Fahad Ghulam	5	1	12	0	2	-
2	Abdul Rehman	3	-	17	1	2	-
3	Pradeep Kumar	2	-	19	1	2	2
4	Rahul Ramesh	3	-	26	1	2	2
5	Tamoor Sajjad	6	1	19	3	2	-
6	Ali Ishtiaq	4	-	18	3	4	-
7
8

INNINGS STARTED AT: 1.40 PM, CLOSED AT:3.13 PM