Cricket has been played at Gymkhana Club over the last three weekends in October with six aside and eight aside practice matches being played by the men’s teams and by the boys and girls sides from Lamphun as they prepared for a youth tournament.
But the first Sunday in November marked the real start of the new season as a junior match was played in the morning and a full-scale adult’s match in the afternoon, as Chiang Mai Lanna CC took on Chiang Mai CC.
More than 50 children and adults came to Gymkhana to play cricket and it was an encouraging sign for the new season in Chiang Mai that the older boys played alongside the adults for both teams in the afternoon game. Bunchuai looked an outstanding prospect with the bat and performances from the new boys in the field were often outstanding.
Lanna had a big squad to choose from after a successful recruitment drive from Chairman David Holt and they had an impressive looking top four in the batting order as they batted first.
Only Gary Chatfield lasted for long but he was given impressive support from 18-year-old Bunchuai who had led his Lamphun Junior side to victory in a competition the previous week.
Chafield hit a six and two fours in his innings of 33 and Daniel Lawson and John Darling also both batted steadily but Bunchuai played the innings of the day as he showed good technique and pushed the ball into the gaps early in his innings before unleashing some powerful pulls and drives towards the end.
Young Bunchuai will be the captain of the Lanna Juniors team who will play in the Chiang Mai Senior League but today the senior team were grateful for his top-score of 41 as Lanna made 137 for 6 in their 25 overs.
Chiang Mai CC had defeated Lanna easily the previous weekend but with the Thai boys also involved this match was a much closer affair. Tariq went for his shots in an innings of 24 and Chanchai will have benefited from time at the crease as he scored 17.
The match was well-contested throughout as both teams gave the young Thai cricketers their chance to bat or bowl. CMCC were just the stronger side as Ismail and Wani hit some big shots, but they only had three wickets in hand when Maki hit the winning runs at the end of an enjoyable day.
It is hoped that a similar day’s cricket will take place at Gymkhana Club next Saturday 9th November with a junior match and practice in the morning followed by an adult’s game in the afternoon with the most promising Thai cricketers again playing alongside the men.