KUALA LUMPUR: A fiery Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak recorded 126 runs from 56 balls as Malaysia outplayed Thailand by 194 runs in the Asian Games men's T20 to top Group C at the Zhejiang Cricket Field in Hangzhou today.
Malaysia, who defeated Singapore with 73 runs on Sept 28, will face fourth seeds Bangladesh in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Malaysia won the toss and elected to bat first. The Malaysian team, coached by Pakistani Bilal Asad, batted well to score 268 runs with loss of four wickets in 120 balls.
Malaysia bowled strongly to restrict Thailand to just 74 runs with loss of nine wickets.
For the 24-year-old Syed, it was his first century in a T20 international match. He recorded 13 fours and nine sixes.
Amir Azim Shukor was Malaysia's second highest scorer with 55 runs from 25 balls. Virandeep Singh, Vijay Unni Suresh and Ahmad Faiz Noor each took two wickets.
Syed said: "I registered the 126 runs at the right time and it will motivate me for the quarter-finals. We are all ready to give our best against a Test-playing country (Bangladesh)."
Team manager Amy Mokhzani said: "All our players are in high spirits and we are ready to put up a strong challenge against Bangladesh."
Top seeds India will face Nepal in the last eight and Pakistan will take on Hong Kong tomorrow. The third quarter-final match is between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan on Wednesday.