Kuwait Beat Myanmar by 9 Wickets — Aslam and Idrees Share Six as Myanmar Fold for 34

Two days after their first defeat of the tournament, Kuwait needed a response, and they found one with the ball. Myanmar lost Htet Lin Oo to the first ball of the match and never got going again. They were 16 for 3 in the ninth over, 26 for 6 in the 13th, and all out for 34 in the 16th.

Kuwait's chase took four overs. Meet Bhavsar and Clinto Anto added an unbeaten 32 from 14 balls after Ravija Sandaruwan fell, and Kuwait won by 9 wickets, with 96 balls remaining.

Anudeep Chenthamara bowled Htet Lin Oo first ball, and from there Kuwait simply kept the squeeze on. Yasin Patel's four overs, including a maiden, cost six runs; he took no wicket but ran out Kyaw Zin Lin and held a catch. Adnan Idrees took the middle of the innings apart with three wickets, one of them stumped by Clinto Anto, and Mohammed Aslam closed it out with 3 for 6. Meet Bhavsar's single over brought two lbws for one run.

The chase was brisk rather than reckless. Sandaruwan fell in the second over with five on the board, and Bhavsar and Anto then hit four fours and a six between them to finish it inside the powerplay. Kuwait, beaten by Bahrain on October 9, have moved straight back to winning.

It is hard to be bowled out for 34, and Myanmar will know their batting must do more. But there were signs of application amid the wreckage. Kyaw Zin Lin batted 24 balls, Khin Aye 19 and Pyae Phyo Wai 15; the problem was turning that time into runs against bowlers who conceded so little. No Myanmar batter reached double figures.

With the ball, Ko Ko Lin Thu had Sandaruwan lbw in the second over, a small moment of reward on a hard day. Myanmar remain without a point after four games and they will want to take something from the games that remain.

Kuwait chose to field, and the scorecard suggests that was a sound decision rather than a decisive one. Kuwait's bowlers conceded barely two an over across the innings, but when Kuwait batted they scored at more than nine an over against Myanmar's two bowlers. That contrast points less to a difficult pitch than to the gap between the two attacks and batting line-ups on the day.

Mohammed Aslam went for 33 in three overs against Bahrain two days earlier. Here he bowled 3.3 overs for six runs and took three wickets: Pyae Phyo Wai, caught by Patel; Nyan Lin Htet, bowled; and Sai Hla Htwe, stumped by Anto to end the innings. Adnan Idrees also took three, but Aslam's six runs from 21 balls were the tighter spell, and a bowler's best answer to a bad day is always the next one.

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

After the October 11 matches, Bahrain lead Qualifier A with ten points from five games (NRR +2.831). Kuwait are second with eight points from five and the group's best net run rate at +4.997. Qatar have six from four, Bhutan four from four and Thailand two from four, while Myanmar and Mongolia have yet to win.

On October 12, Kuwait face Bhutan, and Myanmar play Thailand. Qatar take on Mongolia in the other fixture.