The Singapore men’s cricket team emerged with the gold medal in the six-a-side cricket tournament in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2023.
They defeated hosts Cambodia today by 26 runs in their final round robin match to seal the top spot in the four-nation event. Philippines and Indonesia were the other two teams to take part.
Singapore started with a loss yesterday to Philippines, who won by four wickets. Later in the day, they recovered to defeat Indonesia by 14 runs. By winning against Cambodia, they finished level with the hosts on two wins and with six points each, but a superior net run rate gave the visiting team the gold.
Cricket was played in the SEA Games only for the second time after its debut in 2017. Eight nations across four formats were seen in action at Cambodia 2023.
The 20-over tournaments had full T20 International status with ranking points on offer. The cricket events started on April 29, ahead of the official opening ceremony on May 5.
In 2017, Singapore had claimed the men’s T20 gold medal while they could only manage bronze this time around in the category.
Singapore cricket captain Rezza Gaznavi and fellow player Amjad Mahboob, in an interview with The Straits Times, stated that the team’s performance suffered due to the lack of a training pitch, which led to inadequate preparations in the lead up to the Games. They called on authorities to help stem the sport’s decline.
Sixes is the fastest format of cricket and it is played with six players per side compared with the usual 11.
Singapore squad: Aahan Gopinath Achar, Abdul Rahman Bhadelia, Adwitya Bhargava, Mahiyu Bhatia, Aman Desai (wk), Avi Dixit, Rezza Gaznavi (c), Anantha Krishna, Amjad Mahboob, Anish Paraam, Navin Param, Utsav Rakshit, Rohan Rangarajan, Raoul Sharma, Venkatesan Thiyanesh
