Singapore crowned Division Five champions

Hosts Singapore lifted the World Cricket League Division Five trophy, beating neighbours Malaysia by nine wickets in a one-sided final at the Kallang Ground. Both teams have been promoted to Division Four, and will join Nepal, Tanzania, Denmark and the United States of America in the division to be played late this year.

Malaysia's 159 turned out to be woefully inadequate as Singapore, led by Chaminda Ruwan's unbeaten 91, guided them home in just 26.4 overs. Ruwan smashed 14 fours and a six and shared an unbeaten stand of 118 with Anish Param for the second wicket.

Malaysia's middle order let the side down after the captain Suresh Navaratnam opted to bat. The opener R Madhavan scored 48 to get the team off to a steady start, but Singapore fought back thanks to their legspinner Christopher Janik, who took 3 for 17. Hassan Ghulam resisted with 33 at No.10 but it came a little too late. Malaysia lost their last nine wickets for only 85 runs.

Singapore coach Trevor Chappell said: "I am very pleased to have been able to have coached the side to promotion, they've worked hard this week and it's a good group of cricketers from many different backgrounds trying to play as much cricket as they can while also raising families, studying or working full-time.

"I have to say our bowler who has stood out for me is Shoaib Razzak, he's probably my Singapore player of the tournament. Shoaib's worked really hard on his bowling.

"The other two that have shone for me are the opening partnership of Chaminda Ruwan and Chetan Suryawanshi - although Chetan needs to work hard on keeping his head out in the middle, it was frustrating today when he got out early and it would have been nice to have not lost a wicket with the win - they both proved very capable batsmen throughout this week and continue to improve in their performances."

Malaysia's coach Roy Dias said poor batting had let the side down in the event.

"There have been few players that have really performed this week with the bat for us and in my opinion we did well to win the first four matches with the performances we put in. I am disappointed we lost today but our batting and bowling wasn't up to the mark this week at all and I want to go back to Malaysia and look at the pool of players on offer and start to phase out some of the older members of the squad to help the team develop.

"I really expected more from the likes of Suhan Alagaratnam and Ahmed Faiz but perhaps they didn't have enough match practice ahead of the event. I was pleased with how Sharif Shafiq has performed this week making runs for the side and doing well behind the stumps.

"I'm looking forward to Division 4 and facing my former team Nepal, the whole division is going to be tough for Malaysia but I believe we have got what it takes to be there."

It was a tense finish at the 3rd place play-offs at the Padang as Guernsey sneaked home by one run against Cayman Islands. Jeremy Frith top scored for Guernsey with 57, off 81 balls before he was trapped lbw to Troy Taylor, the right-arm seamer. Taylor took 4 for 50 and he was supported by Ryan Bovell, who took 3 for 41. Cayman Islands though conceded a massive 49 extras, including 32 wides and six no-balls, amounting to just over six extra overs.

Guernsey bowled with better discipline and were led by a five-wicket haul by the right-arm seamer David Hooper. Pearson Best was the only batsman to show solid resistance, scoring 79. Conroy Wrght made a patient 39, off 77 balls, but Hooper took two more lower order wickets to help Guernsey sneak home.

Bahrain coasted to a five-wicket win against Argentina in the fifth place play-offs at the Indian Association Ground. Bahrain's off-spin duo of Adil Hanif and Zafar Zaheer took four wickets each to restrict Argentina to a paltry 139. Argentina featured some of the reserves who had not played in the tournament this week, and the batsmen struggled. Martin Siri's 26 was the highest individual score in the innings. Hanif followed up his efforts with the ball to hit 38 to set up Bahrain's easy win. He picked up the Player of the Tournament trophy as well, in addition to his Man-of-the-Match award.