Jamtsho's Forty, Then the Squeeze: Bhutan Open Qualifier A With a 27-Run Win Over Myanmar

For twelve overs, the first match of Qualifier A belonged to Myanmar's bowlers. Bhutan had chosen to bat, and they found runs hard to come by: 15 for 1 in the sixth over, 31 for 3 in the ninth, 52 for 4 after twelve overs. Kaung Htet Kyaw's four overs cost 14, Sai Hla Htwe's cost 16, and a total of 100 looked a long way off.

Bhutan made 67 in the last eight overs to reach 119 for 8, and Thinley Jamtsho, unbeaten on 40 from 27 balls, was the reason. It was not a big total, but it turned out to be plenty. Myanmar were never quite out of it until they suddenly were — 49 for 3 became 74 for 8 — and they finished on 92 for 9. Bhutan won by 27 runs.

Bhutan's innings came in two distinct halves. The first twelve overs produced 52 runs at 4.33 an over, with four wickets gone; the last eight produced 67 at a little over eight. Tenjin Rabgey's 18 took 29 balls and Namgang Chejay's 22 took 26, and neither was a fluent innings, but both kept Bhutan from losing wickets in a cluster when Myanmar's bowlers were on top. That mattered, because it left Jamtsho with something to build on.

Then Rabgey came back with the ball and produced the spell of the day. Four overs, seven runs, two wickets — an economy rate of 1.75 in a T20I. At the other end Anand Mongar bowled four overs for 11 and took two wickets himself, one of them a return catch. Between them, Rabgey and Mongar bowled eight overs for 18 runs and took four wickets. Sonam Yeshey's four overs went for 16. Myanmar's batters were left with almost nowhere to score, and when a chase of 120 becomes a scramble for singles, the wickets tend to follow.

Gakul Ghalley was the most expensive of Bhutan's main bowlers at 28 from four overs, but he took three wickets, including Paing Danu, Myanmar's top scorer. The fielding held, too: of Myanmar's nine wickets, six were catches, with Tshering Tashi taking two.

It would be unfair to read this result as a Myanmar side that was outplayed throughout. Their bowlers had Bhutan at 52 for 4 after twelve overs, and their five bowlers each completed their four overs. Paing Danu took 3 for 23, Kaung Htet Kyaw 2 for 14 and Sai Hla Htwe went wicketless but conceded only 16. The damage came late — 31 runs from the last four overs — and from the extras column, which gave Bhutan 17, more than every Bhutanese batter except Jamtsho, Chejay and Rabgey made.

The chase began brightly enough. Myanmar were 23 for 1 in the fourth over and 37 for 2 in the sixth, with Paing Danu hitting two fours and a six in his 16 and Htet Lin Oo three fours in a quick 12 from 9 balls. But from 49 for 3 in the tenth over, Myanmar lost five wickets for 25 runs and were 74 for 8 in the 17th. Sai Hla Htwe's 10 not out from 17 balls helped take them past 90, but by then the asking rate had long gone. Paing Danu, with three wickets and his side's top score, can leave Kuala Lumpur's first day with his head up.

The scorecard describes a day for patience. Bhutan scored at 5.95 an over and Myanmar at 4.60, and the match produced only four sixes — three for Bhutan, one for Myanmar. Eight of the eleven bowlers who bowled went at seven an over or less. The same ground hosted the tournament's third match on the same day, and Kuwait and Qatar made 340 runs between them, so whatever held the batters back here, it was not only the surface.

Forty not out from 27 balls, one four and two sixes, a strike rate of a shade over 148 in a match where nobody else on either side passed 22. Bhutan's batters made 102 runs between them; Jamtsho made 40 of those. The other eight made 62 from 94 balls. That is the gap between a total Myanmar could have chased and one they could not.

He was not finished. With the ball he bowled two overs for 16 and took the wicket of Ye Naing Tun, and in the field he caught Htet Lin Oo off Ghalley. There are innings that announce themselves, and innings that simply arrive when they are needed and leave the scoreboard quietly changed. On a slow day in Kuala Lumpur, Jamtsho's was the second kind, and it was enough to win the opening match of the event.

CricIntel did not publish a preview for this match, so there is no prediction to review.

Qualifier A is a seven-team single round robin running from October 5 to 14 in Malaysia. After day one, Kuwait (2 points, net run rate +2.90), Bhutan (2, +1.35) and Bahrain (2, +0.35) are on two points each; Thailand, Myanmar and Qatar are on none, and Mongolia have yet to play.

Bhutan are straight back in action on October 6, against Bahrain at Bangi — a meeting of two sides who both won on day one. Myanmar do not feature in the October 6 fixtures, which gives them a little time to work out how a chase that stood at 49 for 3 in the tenth over slipped away so quickly.