After two clear days of sunshine and a game that looked certain to provide a result, rain took center stage on the last two sessions of the final day's play in the annual Saudara Cup match between Malaysia and Singapore played at the Kelab Aman grounds in Kuala Lumpur to end in a draw.

Malaysia took up the challenge, chasing 227 runs in a minimum of 65 overs, when they went in to bat in their second innings. The game was evenly poised with the score at 55 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 18 overs, leaving Malaysia to score 172 runs in the remaining 47 overs at 3.6 runs an over. Two out of the 4 wickets that Malaysia lost were those of juniors, with a long list of senior batsmen yet to go in. At the crease, when rain stopped play were Rohan Selvaratnam and Suresh Navaratnam, before the skies opened up.

The three day match saw Singapore being sent in to bat by Malaysia on a grassy wicket to exploit the green. To justify the decision, Singapore's opening bat N. Balasubramaniam was dismissed, caught. behind off the first ball of the day. But they recovered from the early shock and as the day wore on, there was not enough bounce coming from the track and the Malaysian bowlers were made to toil as the Singapore batsmen went for their runs.

Singapore were always looking comfortable and indications were that they were going for a big total in the restricted 75 overs in the first innings. Their charge was led by skipper Zubin Shroff, who played a very sensible game by punishing the loose balls and was ably supported by the aggressive Kapila Mendis, a Sri Lankan PR. Soon after Zubin was out for 80 runs with the score at 8 for 212 in the 63rd over, Singapore collapsed to 217 all out in 67.1 overs. Suresh bowled well to grab 4 wickets for 61 runs and Rohan Vishnu 3 wickets for 52 runs.

Malaysia, who decided to blood five juniors into the team to give them the much needed exposure at this level, went in to bat soon after tea and gave a poor exhibition of batting. They never recovered from the bad start and were loosing wickets at regular intervals, managing only 163 runs in 57.4 overs. Except for a disciplined innings from Rakesh Madhavan, who made 52, and 31 runs from Rohan Vishnu, there was no significant score from the rest.

Singapore's bowling honours went to 17 year old Riaz Hussien, who took 3 for 27.

Singapore went in to bat on the second day an hour after lunch in their second innings, with a lead of 54 runs and ended the day with 104 for 3 wickets. Kapila Mendis the overnight not out batsman got down to business on the third day and slammed 76 runs before he was out.

With his departure Singapore buckled under the spin of the two Suppiah brothers, Rohan Vishnu and Arul Vivasan, who together took 9 wickets to dismiss Singapore for 172 runs in 80.2 overs in the last over before lunch. Rohan Vishnu took 5 for 71 and Arul 4 for 28.

Malaysia's target was 227 in a minimum of 67 overs and they decided to go for it. A good start always seemed to be the perennial problem for Malaysia and truly so they found themselves in a precarious position in their chase, losing the first wicket for 9 runs and the second for 28. Both the batsmen out were juniors. Having settled down, again they lost another two wickets at 51 for 3 and 52 for 4. Nevertheless the Malaysian camp was full of confidence that they could still get the remaining runs with their senior batsmen still padded up to go in, but a typical Malaysian rainstorm put an end to the excitement.

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