Thailand Beat Bhutan by 37 Runs — Nopphon Senamontree Takes 5 for 10, Two in Two Balls Twice

Thailand chose to bat at Selangor Turf Club and were 19 for 3 before the fourth over was out: Akshaykumar Yadav stumped by Tshering Tashi off Tashi Phuntsho from the fourth ball of the match, Phiriyapong Suanchuai caught by Anand Mongar off Phuntsho, Pattarapol Jirapatananukul caught behind off Thinley Jamtsho. Austin Lazarus and Chaloemwong Chatphaisan steadied things with 38 in 47 balls, Chatphaisan hit three sixes in his 37, and Chanchai Pengkumta and Phanuphong Thongsa added 45 in 27 balls late on to reach 134 for 8.

Bhutan were 31 without loss in the fifth over, and then Nopphon Senamontree bowled Ranjung Mikyo Dorji and had Sonam Chophel caught off the next ball. In the 11th he did it again, bowling Tashi Phuntsho and Tshering Tashi off consecutive deliveries. Five for 10 in four overs, with a maiden. Tenjin Rabgey made 43; the other ten Bhutan batters made 43 between them; and Thailand won by 37 runs, Bhutan all out for 97 in 18.5 overs.

Senamontree's five wickets came in a pattern that is rare even in a format that compresses everything. Ranjung Mikyo Dorji, bowled, 31 for 1; Sonam Chophel, caught by Austin Lazarus, 31 for 2, the very next ball. Namgang Chejay, lbw, in the seventh over. Then in the 11th: Tashi Phuntsho, bowled, 57 for 5; Tshering Tashi, bowled, 57 for 6, the very next ball. Four of the five were bowled or lbw. Four overs, one maiden, ten runs, five wickets, and the Bhutan innings had been taken apart in two pairs of deliveries.

Phanuphong Thongsa supported him with 4-0-23-2: Thinley Jamtsho stumped by Suanchuai, and then Tenjin Rabgey, caught by Lazarus for 43, the wicket that settled the match. Mukesh Thakur bowled Gakul Ghalley and Sonam Yeshey in the 19th over to finish it; Anand Mongar had been retired out for 2 in the 18th, an entry you rarely see on a scorecard and one that said Bhutan knew where the game had gone. Lazarus held two catches and bowled three overs for 12, and Thailand's six bowlers gave Bhutan 11 extras but very little else.

With the bat, Thailand's innings was a recovery rather than a statement. At 19 for 3, Lazarus and Chatphaisan went at under five an over for 47 balls, which was the right tempo for the situation, and Chatphaisan's three sixes in 37 from 34 were the spine of the innings. Thailand were 70 for 5 in the 14th over; Pengkumta's two sixes and Thongsa's three fours and a six took the sixth-wicket stand to 45 in 27 balls, and Nopphon Senamontree hit a six of his own in 10 not out from 6 as he and Kamron Senamontree added 14 from the last seven balls. From 19 for 3 to 134 is not a small climb.

Bhutan's bowlers did what was asked of them. Tashi Phuntsho took two in the first three overs, Tshering Tashi had a stumping and a catch inside four overs and another stumping, of Chatphaisan off Tashi Dorji, later on, Sonam Yeshey's four overs cost 12 and brought Lazarus, and Ranjung Mikyo Dorji took Pengkumta and Thakur in the 19th. Gakul Ghalley bowled one ball of an over and left the field, Ranjung finishing it; he returned to bat. Conceding 64 in the last six and a half overs after Thailand had been 70 for 5 was the one lapse, but 134 was a chase Bhutan could have made.

The chase started well enough: Rabgey and Ranjung Mikyo Dorji put on 31 in 29 balls. Then came Senamontree's first pair, Chejay and Jamtsho followed inside three overs, and at 57 for 6 in the 11th over Bhutan needed 78 from 56 balls with four wickets left. Rabgey kept going. His 43 from 43, with three fours and a six, was the only innings on the day that looked like it belonged to a chase, and Gakul Ghalley's 19 kept him company for 18 runs. When Thongsa had Rabgey caught by Lazarus at 75 for 7 in the 14th over, the remaining wickets added 22. Rabgey made 43, the other ten batters 43, and 11 extras made up the 97. Bhutan finish fifth on four points.

Thailand chose to bat and 134 was enough by 37. Of the 17 wickets taken by bowlers, three were stumpings and six were bowled or lbw, and in Bhutan's innings seven of the ten dismissals were bowled, lbw or stumped; the ball was beating the bat rather than finding the fielder. Yet Thailand hit seven sixes and Rabgey found the boundary four times, so there were runs for batters who got in. On this evidence it was a surface that asked batters to get forward and play straight, and Senamontree, with four of his five victims bowled or lbw, asked the question more insistently than anyone.

Four overs, a maiden, ten runs, five wickets, and a shape to the spell that will be remembered longer than the numbers: two wickets in two balls in the fifth over, two wickets in two balls in the 11th, and Chejay lbw in between. Four of the five were bowled or lbw, which tells you how straight he bowled and how little the batters could do about it. He had already hit a six in 10 not out from 6 balls as Thailand added 14 in the last seven deliveries of their innings, so he contributed to both halves of the margin. On the final day of a tournament Thailand could no longer qualify from, Nopphon Senamontree gave them a performance to carry out of it.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Thailand finish fourth on six points and Bhutan fifth on four; neither could reach the top three, which was settled before this match began. Kuwait finish top on ten points with a net run rate of +5.775, Bahrain second on ten after losing to Qatar off the last ball earlier in the day, and Qatar third on nine. Those three progress to the 2027 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Regional Final. Myanmar, who beat Mongolia this morning for their first win, finish sixth on two points, and Mongolia seventh on one.

Zeeshan Haider of Qatar finished as the tournament's leading run-scorer with 187, and Bahrain's Ali Dawood as its leading wicket-taker with 15. Senamontree's 5 for 10 was the best bowling return of the final day.