Singapore's men cricket team emerged victorious with the first-ever cricket gold medal in the South-East Asian (SEA) Games yesterday. This was the sport's debut appearance.
Singapore beat Malaysia by three wickets with one ball remaining in the Twenty20 final at Selangor's Kinrara Oval, avenging their loss in the 50-overs tournament a week ago.
Malaysia won the toss and opted to bat, looking for a gold medal ahead of the country's Independence Day today. The home side were restricted to 117 runs for seven wickets by in-form Shoib Mohamed, the bowler picking off two wickets in the first over.
Singapore got off to a solid start in the chase, with 21-year-old Navin Param's 29 runs setting a launchpad for the men in red. But it was Riaz Hussein with 37 runs from 41 balls, who scored the winning runs, accelerating the pace in the final three overs. The batsman let out a roar of delight as he was mobbed by his teammates in the oval.
Singapore's cricketers ended their SEA Games campaign with the men bagging a gold and a silver, while the women fell just short of the podium. On Monday, they lost to Malaysia by eight wickets in the T20 third-place play-off.
