Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, RoW captain Curt Livermore decided to open the bowling with 16-year-old Eddie Chataway. The youngster struggled to find his line in his opening spell although troubled the openers Yasir Yayha and Abu Baker when he got it right.
Michael Flowers, opening the bowling with Chataway, dismissed Bakar 5 (5) LBW in his first over and then had Yayha 3 (8) caught behind by Bangkok Parrot regular Paul Jeffels in his second over to gain the upper hand and set the score at 26-2 after 3.4 overs.
Sunny Bowry and Jagsir Brar came together to steady the ship and brought up the team 50 after 6 overs. After some accurate spin bowling from Anthony Van Blerk and the much-improved Michael Rhys Thomas (MRT) stifled the run rate, MRT removed Brar 19 (20) who top edged for Jeffels to take his second catch of the morning. Asia found themselves struggling at 53-3 after 7 overs.
Asia Captain Mayur Deuskar, in red hot form this year, joined Bowry at the crease and the two played cautiously with little batting left in the shed, taking the score to a sub-par 71-3 at the 10-overs drinks break.
Continuing after the break, Van Blerk, MRT and James Chataway continued to squeeze Asia with effective spin bowling. In the 14th over, Van Blerk dismissed Bowry 20 (31) with Flowers taking a high catch at a deepish mid-off. Asia in some trouble at 88-4 after 13.2 overs.
Jashu Reddy joined the match and in just his second appearance made an immediate impact putting away two loose Van Blerk balls for 4 in his first 3 balls faced.
Asia really broke the shackles in the 16th over when Deuskar put caution to the wind and hammered Neil Quail for 22 off the over to lift Asia to 129-4 after 16 overs.
Livermore made a double breakthrough in the 17th over, first bowling Reddy 12 (8) and then just 3 balls later had Saju Abraham 2 (3) caught at long on, with Flowers again in the heart of the action. After 17 overs Asia were 132-6 with the last pair of Deuskar and Damian Westwood at the crease.
Deuskar 67* (34) continued his terrific vein of form and blasted his way through the final 3 overs with the support of Westwood as Asia post a below par but defendable total of 171-6 from their 20 overs.
There were some good bowling performances for RoW including Livermore 2-27 (3 overs), Flowers 2-30 (4 overs), MRT 1-17 (3 overs) and Van Blerk 1-25 (4 overs) although too many team extras were conceded (30).
A Family Affair
Asia got off to a great start with the new ball, Deuskar conceding just 2 runs in the first over before Brar found the glove of Jeffels 1 (4) with his very first ball as Westwood took the catch behind the wicket. Asia on 2-1 after just 1.1 overs.
James Chataway joined his son at the wicket at number 3 and played well despite some excellent pace and swing from Brar roughing him up. James injected some much needed pace into the innings as the father and son pair guided RoW to 50-1 after 7 overs.
A wayward Bakar over followed and 17 runs later RoW were back in charge of the match at 67-1 after 8 overs with James Chataway on the march.
The tide of the game changed the very next ball, however, as Yasir bowling his first ball of the match went right through James 36 (22) as Asia picked up their second wicket.
Livermore joined Eddie Chataway and looked to continue where James had left off as he hit 3 boundaries in the 10th over to go to the drinks break at 85-2, 14 runs and 1 wicket ahead of where Asia had been at the same point and roughly half way to the target.
After the drinks break, RoW were unable to maintain their run rate, getting bogged down by some accurate bowling. Opener Eddie Chataway 23 (35) was finally dismissed with a bizarre double bouncer from Bowry’s first ball to bring in Van Blerk.
In the following over the big wicket of Livermore 33 (21) was taken by Deuskar, Yayha in the deep making the catch to reduce RoW to 114-4 after 14.1 overs.
MRT joined Van Blerk in the middle but the pair were unable to find the necessary boundaries to lift the run rate. Needing 20 from the final over, Brar was brought back into the attack for the final over. He knocked over Van Blerk 15 (16) leaving the new batsman Flowers with 19 to win from 4 balls.
Flowers 0 (4) was unable to find the fence and was caught behind by Westwood attempting a ramp shot on the final delivery. A terrific final over with 2 wickets and just 2 runs conceded, leaving RoW with a 17-run defeat.
Brar was the pick of the bowlers with 3-23 from 4 overs while Deuskar continued his terrific form with bat and ball, finishing with figures of 1-17 from 4 overs, 67 runs not out and the Man of the Match honours.
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