Pattaya Cricket Club hosted its third annual Super 8’s tournament at the magnificent Thai Polo Ground over the weekend June 4-5. Under clear skies six teams from all over Thailand competed in 7-overs per side games and with only 8 players per team the action was fast and furious.
Games were played in a round-robin format throughout Saturday and Sunday morning with the finishing league positions deciding the three finals for the Sunday afternoon.
The Southerners from Bangkok remained unbeaten in the league games and were deservedly the tournament favourites where they would play the Cup Final against a strong Asian Star side. PCC, the home side, qualified in fourth and would entertain Siam CC in the Bowl Final, whilst the Plate Final would be contested by Chiang Mai CC and the British Club of Bangkok.
In the Bowl Final PCC batted first and mustered 71/3, which proved to be not enough as Siam CC hit the winning runs with 5 balls to spare. Bobby top scored with a 32 retired from only 13 balls faced.
Chiang Mai batted first in the battle for 5th and 6th place in the Plate Final and against some miserly BC bowling could only score a sub-par 59. James (31no) and Denzil (22no) made light work of reaching the target to record a much cherished victory.
The Cup Final promised to be a hard fought game but the Southerner’s bowlers had other ideas. The Asian Star batsmen could not dominate as they had in previous games and the pressure told as wickets fell rapidly. Arjun was the main destroyer with a match winning 3/5 from his single over and backed up by some marvellous outfield catching Asian Star were restricted to just 32/7. Daniel (26no) and Nathan (22no) cruised to the target and Nathan fittingly closed the game and tournament with a huge straight six.
The Player of the Tournament was awarded to Dimple of the Asian Star team who had 4 retired innings and bowled consistently well in each game.
PCC would like to thank the sponsors Pattaya Sports Club, Shenanigans by the Lake for the amazing food and beverages and Burapha University for the trophies. Also, a very big thank you goes to Khun Surapol and his team for producing the best cricket ground in Thailand.
