Lanna’s first overseas tour started in fine fashion as the club travelled to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia with a team that included two Thai junior players and several welcome guests drafted in at the last minute as the final arrangements for the tour were put in place.
The first match was played at the ground at Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar College on the outskirts of the city against a team known as SSR on account of its lengthy name (Sunway Sungai Way Residents Cricket Club).
The toss was held while most of the team were on the bus on the way to the ground as local Simon Caffrey was getting everything ready for Lanna’s arrival. This included new scoreboard, scorebook and computer scoring system and he also arranged that Lanna would bat first with nobody having seen the ground, the opposition or the pitch.
All went well as Martin Cardno made 80 from 50 balls including 26 from one over as Jun supported him at the start and guest player Sukrit (henceforth known as Secret Weapon) hit 44 from 45 balls. The innings tailed off after Cardno was brilliantly caught in the outfield but captain Matt Bray battled against exhaustion to reach 40 as Hamish Weir made him run and run to more than make up for all the dot balls that Hamish faced.
The home side’s bowling improved towards the end as Ravin Singh who had toured Chiang Mai with Ctrack took 3 for 27 and Elijah Herath claimed 2 for 18 but a total of 202 for 6 from 30 overs was a good score on a ground with a slow outfield. (chance of victory 55 %)
The slow outfield didn’t come into play as the SSR openers hit the ball high and hard with Shankar Das reaching 50 and at the first drinks break the match was in the balance (50 %). Richard Cowles had hurt his back and Simon Caffrey had taken over up to drinks but the brains trust came up with a master plan.
Martin Papworth took over behind the stumps and despite standing back to the slow bowlers it was spin that did the trick as Simon showed his all-round skills by taking 3 for 29 and Sixes Cup winner Hamish Weir did even better with 3 for 25 as a period of 12 overs brought Lann 6 wickets.
Victory looked a formality (85 %) but Lanna couldn’t quite put the game away as Cher changed ends but couldn’t change his luck. 16-year-old Daniyal Hashmi showed great promise as made 25* and the number 11 was looking dangerous before Matt Bray took a captain’s wicket to end proceedings as skies darkened and rain started falling.
Lanna had won their first ever overseas match by 23 runs, the beers had been organised and the ground’s pavilion proved a pleasant location for the presentations and discussions about the game. The ground is the base for Silver State who had played in the Chiang Mai Sixes on a number of occasions and the newspaper cuttings remain displayed on the wall should anyone be interested (as well as Locky).
(Report on match 2 against Kelawar CC at Selangor Turf Club to follow)