Maldives Beat China by 10 Wickets — Azyan Farhath Does It With Ball and Bat

Opening matches tell you who has arrived ready. Maldives had. China chose to bat, were bowled out for 96, and then watched Maldives' openers bat through the chase without being parted. It was the first match of Qualifier B, and it set a high bar.

The total hides an odd detail. Thirty of China's 96 came in extras, which means Maldives' bowlers gave away almost a third of the runs they conceded. Off the bat, China made 66. Maldives won by 10 wickets, with 59 balls remaining.

The extras will bother Maldives' coaches, but the rest of the bowling performance was excellent. Harsha Amarasinghe bowled Du Jianhao in the first over and finished with three overs for five runs and a maiden. Umar Adam bowled a maiden too and went for 12 in four overs. Five different bowlers took wickets, and a sixth wicket was a run-out. In the space of three balls either side of the 10th over, China went from 48 for 2 to 53 for 5: Du Jianyao lbw to Farhath, Tian Sen Qun run out by Amarasinghe, and Zong Yuechao bowled by Adam.

China rebuilt to 94 for 6, but Tharusha Kavinda took two wickets in three balls in the 16th over and Ibrahim Rizan finished it with two more in the 17th. The last four wickets went down for two runs.

China's batters spread the work out. Six of them made between 7 and 15, and nobody went on. Zong Yuechao's 15 from 15 balls was the top score and the closest anyone came to taking charge. The trouble was the clusters: three wickets for five runs around the halfway mark, and four for two at the end. A side that keeps losing wickets in pairs never gets the momentum a T20 innings needs.

Defending 96 against two openers who took on the bowling was always going to be hard. Chen Zhuo Yue's 1.1 overs cost 24 and Yao Junting's three cost 30. There are four more games for China to settle, and the batting showed glimpses of it.

China chose to bat at Bayuemas Oval. Two of their wickets were lbw and two were bowled, so bowlers who attacked the stumps got rewards. But Maldives' 100 for 0 at almost ten an over, with five sixes between the two openers, suggests there was little in the pitch to stop batters who hit through the line. The difference between the innings was the batting, not the conditions.

Farhath's figures with the ball — 4-0-33-3 — are the most expensive of Maldives' wicket-takers, but his three wickets were important ones: Yang Wangjie caught by Sheraz Iqbal to break the second-wicket stand, then Du Jianyao and Ma Qiancheng both lbw. He also took the catch that removed Chen Zhuo Yue.

Then he opened the batting and made sure the game ended early. His 52 not out came from 33 balls, with five fours and three sixes, and he and Rishwan never looked in danger. There are few better ways to start a qualifying campaign than to finish the first match yourself.

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

Qualifier B is a six-team single round robin in Malaysia, with Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore joining these two sides. After the first round, Maldives (net run rate +5.036), Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong each have two points.

Maldives play Singapore on October 9 at the Selangor Turf Club, while China face Hong Kong at the YSD-UKM Cricket Oval in Bangi.