KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia emerged champions of the T20 World Cup Asia B Qualifier at Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur today after an impressive seven-wicket win over Thailand.
Malaysia thus qualified for the Asia regional finals in Nepal from Oct 30-Nov 9.
Malaysia won all their four round robin matches, defeating China by eight wickets in the opening match before beating Bhutan by 75 runs and Myanmar by 184 runs.
Malaysia won the toss and put Thailand to bat first. The homesters did well to restrict the Thais to 93 runs with all out and 10 balls to spare.
Then Malaysia's batters made 96 runs with the loss of three wickets in 11.4 overs. After 10 overs, Malaysia had the match in the bag as they made 85 runs for the loss of two wickets.
Wicket keeper Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak and Zubaidi Zulkifle were the first two batsmen, and the former sizzled with 45 runs in 32 balls with six fours and one sixer.
Zubaidi contributed 19 runs, followed by captain Ahmed Faiz's 10 runs, Virandeep Singh's seven runs and Vijay Unni's four runs.
Vijay, who is 19, was the star for Malaysia as he took four wickets in four overs.
Team manager Amy Mokhsani said: "The team played consistently well in all four matches and this augurs well for future tournaments.
"I'm impressed with the players' performance against Thailand as they made full use of the opportunities they had.
"We hope they will continue their momentum at the Asia finals and finish in the top two to qualify for the T20 World Cup."