THE national team’s return to international action in the post-pandemic period was greatly anticipated but the Nepal Tri-Nations Series best served to highlight the gap between Malaysia and the world’s top associate nations.
A win over Nepal in the Asia Cup Eastern Region qualifiers in March 2020 put the national team on an upward trajectory but the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to have set them back some.
Two heavy defeats by Nepal as well as a loss and tie against an under-strength Netherlands in Kathmandu this week means Malaysia have work to do to regain the ground lost during 13 months of inactivity ahead of the Asia qualifiers for 2022 ICC T20 World Cup in July.
With just one point from four matches, Malaysia finished bottom of the standings with Nepal facing the Dutch in the final.
Malaysia, 32nd in the ICC T20I men’s rankings, were unlucky not to beat World No 17 Netherlands in the second meeting, as the rain-interrupted match ended in a tie after losing their first clash by 15 runs.
But two heavy defeats to 15th-ranked Nepal – by nine wickets and 69 runs – suggest Malaysia need to improve on the consistency of performances, as noted by captain Ahmad Faiz Mohammed Noor.
“We had a good bowling session early on, unfortunately, we gave away 60-odd runs in the last four overs. They had too much on the board and we couldn’t chip away with our batting,” said Faiz at the post-match presentation after Thursday’s defeat by Nepal in Kathmandu.
“They played well and their bowlers contained us well. We were under pressure with just one point, and the consistency is not there. Nepal played better than us today. We will take the positives from the four matches here to the next tournament.”
Among the positives was a personal best T20I score of 87 runs by Virandeep Singh, which equalled the record individual T20I score by Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak. However, that was the only half-century by any Malaysian in the four matches.
Aminuddin Ramly showed what a valuable middle-order batsman he can be with five sixes against Nepal on the way to posting his highest T20I score of 41 runs while bowler Wafiq Irfan Zarbani took three wickets in the tournament to mark his international return after almost two years away.
Bowling remains Malaysia’s Achilles’ heel as 14 wickets from four matches would testify with Nepal even allowed to set their second highest T20I score of 217 on Thursday.
Aside from part-time spinner Virandep Singh, who only bowled two overs, no other Malaysian bowler had economy rates better than eight runs an over with Sharvin Muniandy’s 10.33 the most expensive among the regular bowlers.
Malaysia host Group B of the T20 World Cup qualifiers on July 3-9 with only one team advancing to the global qualifiers. Hong Kong and Malaysia are expected to battle for the sole slot with Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Thailand only making up the numbers.