With the win, Malaysia garnered its first point in group-stage and kept its semifinal hope alive. Malaysia, which is slated to group-A of the tournament, had lost to Hong Kong on the opening day. [break]Malaysia is to take on the Maldives and the host Nepal during the group stage. Hong Kong has four points after two victories while Nepal, the Maldives and Malaysia have two points each from equal numbers of matches.
As Malaysia elected to field at the TU Cricket Ground, Singapore put up a handsome 172-run target. However, Malaysian middle-order stood tall to meet the target in 18 overs at the expense of four wickets.
Singapore made 171/6 in 20 overs as Chaminda Ruwan blasted 47 runs off 25 balls and Anish Param remained unbeaten with 44 runs off 29 balls.
Chasing the total, Malaysia was 20/2 after 3.2 overs but its middle-order batted brilliantly. Man-of-the-match Suhan Kumar clobbered unbeaten 70 runs off 37 balls and Shafiq Sharif scored 26 runs off 15 balls. Suhan Kumar struck seven boundaries and three sixes. Khaizar Hayat Durrani also remained unbeaten for Malaysia adding invaluable 30 runs off 18 balls including two sixes and a boundary.
In a group-B contest, Afghanistan dominated Bahrain in every department of the game and produced a huge 72-run victory at the Pulchowk Engineering Ground as Gulbadin Naib put up an all-round performance. Afghanistan put up 157/5 in 20 overs as G Naib scored 46 runs off 41 balls and Najibullah Zadran remained unbeaten with 45 runs off 31 balls.
In reply, Bahrain was all out for 85 runs in 15.5 overs. Man-of-the-match Naib claimed four wickets while Hamza Hotak took three wickets. Hotak, the left-arm orthodox, bowled 1.5 overs and gave away only seven runs to take the three wickets. Tahir Dar (14 runs) and Anasim Khan (13 runs) were the major contributors for Bahrain.
Afghanistan, which defeated Oman in its first match on Tuesday, is on the top of the group-B table with four points. The UAE also has four points but is on the second place because of inferior net run rate.
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