Saeed's all-round show leads Bahrain to victory

Bahrain 207 for 7 (Saeed 55, Rich 3-39) beat Guernsey 204 for 9 (Ferbrache 51, Saeed 5-44) by three wickets
Scorecard

Qamer Saeed's five-wicket haul and well-paced half-century helped Bahrain defeat Guernsey by three wickets in the final of the ICC World Cricket League Division 7. Saeed's all-round display allowed Bahrain to finish the tournament unbeaten. Despite the loss, Guernsey also qualified for the Division 6 tournament by virtue of qualifying for the final.

Guernsey lost both openers early and looked to their in-form batsmen, Jeremy Frith and Stuart Le Prevost, to rebuild the innings. But after a stand of 34, Le Prevost and Frith fell in the space of eight balls, to reduce Guernsey to 78 for 4, which quickly became 81 for 5 when Ross Kneller fell three balls later.

Lee Ferbrache then led Guernsey's recovery with 51 and received support from Kris Moherndl (35) which helped Guernsey to 204 for 9. Qamar Saeed was the best bowler for Bahrain, taking 5 for 44, while Yaser Sadeq also took two wickets.

Ashraf Mughal fell early during Bahrain's run-chase but the top-order finally found some form as Shazhad Ahmed (46) and Imran Sajjad (33) put on 81 for the second wicket. Once again Bahrain suffered a collapse, struggling to come to terms with the spin attack of Gary Rich and Jeremy Frith on a turning wicket, and slumped from 81 for 1 to 119 for 6.

A 72-run partnership between Saeed and Azeem ul Haq (25) steadied the innings and although Azeem was dismissed with 14 required for victory, Bahrain was able to achieve the target without too many further worries.

"When we came here I didn't think that we would perform as well as we have as we weren't sure how well the team would gel together. However, the team has become one unit and that is a great thing," Bahrain captain Yaser Sadeq said. "Our team has excellent character and we are capable of amazing comebacks. This was the first time we had a chance to show our character in this tournament and it was good to show that we can win by batting second, like we did today."

In other matches, Nigeria took third place with a 68-run win against Japan. Nigeria reached 221 for 9 with Akabogu Okwudili (68) and Olajide Bejide (41 not out) playing key roles, and Olalekan Awolowo's 4 for 34 then ensured Japan were bowled out for 138.

The fifth-sixth place playoff match between Suriname and Gibraltar turned out to be a thriller with Suriname edging it by just eight runs. A spectacular innings from Troy Dudnath, who smashed 130 off 90 balls, lifted Suriname to 300 and despite excellent half-centuries from Christian Rocca and Iain Latin, Gibraltar finished short.

Gibraltar and Suriname were relegated to World Cricket League Division 8 scheduled in 2010 while Japan and Nigeria will stay in the Division 7 event to be staged in 2011.