KATHMANDU: Malaysia won the ACC U-16 Elite Cup third-place playoff with a seven-wicket win over Hong Kong here at the Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidhyalaya grounds today.

Electing to bat first, Hong Kong were bowled out for 129 runs in 37.2 overs and Malaysia surpassed the total losing three wickets in 26. 3 overs. Hong Kong failed to cash in on a good start provided by their top order batsmen eventually being dismissed in the 38th over. Opener Anshuman Rath (16) and Miten Khatri (24) put

on 28 before Syahadat

Ramli broke their stand

in the 10th over. Kinchit Shah (31) joined Miten

and the two batsmen added another 37 for the second wicket. Syahadat again broke the partnership, trapping Miten leg before wicket in the 18th over.

Kinchit defied the Malaysian attack at the one end but Hong Kong lost wickets regularly at the other end. Kinchit too was bowled, the sixth Hong Kong wicket to fall, off Nik Nabil in the 25th over and it was Furqan Tahir (16) and Toby Abernethy (13) who contributed to the team total. Amerul Hussin was the pick of the Malaysian bolwers with 4-22 from seven overs, and was ably supported by Md Fetri (2-46), Syahadat (2-17) and Nik (2-17).

In reply, Malaysia had a poor start losing openers Razlan Zalati (two) and Amerul Hussin (naught) in the second over bowled by Kinchit before man-of-the-mach Syahadat steered his team safely home with an unbeaten half century. Syahadat struck nine fours in his 75-ball 71. Ahmad Tajudin contributed 20 while Zachary Shunmugam remained unbeaten on 16.

In the fifth-place decider, Saudi Arabia beat Bahrain by six wickets at the Pulchowk Engineering College grounds. Put in to the bat first, Bahrain made 154 in 37.1 overs before Saudi Arabia overcame the total losing four wickets in 22 overs. Mohammad Fayyaz top scored for Bahrain with 36 runs while Ali Ikram contributed 26 and Akshay Bhardwaj 20. Man-of-the-match Hassan Sharif completed a five-wicket haul (5-34) for Saudi Arabia. Faheem Afrad also bagged two while Mohammad Abdullah, Mohammad Usman and Salman Saleem took one wicket apiece.

Saudi Arabia were reeling at 54-4 by the eighth over but Mohammad Abdullah (86) and Salman Patel (37) put on unfinished stand of 101 for the fifth wicket to fashion a remarkable victory. Abdullah struck 12 boundaries and two sixes in his explosive 62-ball knock while Salman hit three fours in his 39-ball 37.