By Andrew McMillan
Thalang stand-in captain Andrew McMillan chose to field first and, in the 4th over ICC's main run-scorer Junaid Mohammad (9 runs) picked out Thai cricketer Pao in the deep and was caught.
After the break, Thalang turned it up as ICC lost regular wickets to be 76/5 after 20 overs. Neill Culpan was in good form with the ball picking up 2 wickets from his first 4 overs.
Darshan Vaigankar and Balesh Desai (33) led a recovery for ICC in the next 10 overs as they reached 135/6 from 30 overs. In the last session, Vaiganker became another victim of Culpan's speed, a LBW for (64 runs). Even with the return to the crease of Mehra, ICC were all out for 174 runs in the final over.
Best with the ball for Thalang was Culpan 3/18, Craig Murphy 2/19.
Thalang began their innings in terribly with Simon Wetherell caught in slip, Pao adjudged LBW and Jean Matthee caught in slip. All three wickets were off the bowling of Arun Virdikar in the 4th over. Thalang were 11/3 but ICC were playing with a fielder short after Mehra was sent off with an injury.
Culpan and McMillan exposed the gaps in the field as they hit a 48 run partnership from the next five overs. At drinks Arun Virdikar had the tremendous figures of 5/28 and bowled ICC into a very strong position in the match.
Carl Baxter joined McMillan at the crease but both were soon caught by Shah Ullah. Thalang were 7/102 in the 18th over when Craig Murphy and Garry Lane took Thalang through to the 25th over before Lane (28 runs) was dismissed.
Thalang's season was on the line with 46 runs needed with two wickets in hand. On a day when the bowlers were reigning supreme, Runhaar and Murphy showed that cricket is still a game for batsmen as they worked the ball into the gaps for 10 overs before Murphy sent the last ball of the 35th to the fence to seal a victory for Thalang.
Virdikar was the star of the ICC bowling attack with 5/42 while Yedu finished with 3 catches and 3/39. Murphy (36 runs), McMillan (35 runs) and Lane (28 runs) had done just enough to keep last years premiership team Thalang in the finals hunt.
Next up, the ACG will host the Live 89.5 Phuket Cricket Sixes tournament on April 11–12, both starting at 10am. The final three rounds of the Phuket 40-Over Cricket League will continue on April 18. All things point towards Phuket Cricket League finals places being decided in the very last match of the season where ICC may need to beat Laguna.