Singapore earned promotion to Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 5 (WCL Div.5) after it recorded its fourth successive victory in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6 (WCL Div.6) in Singapore on Wednesday.

At the Kalang, Singapore defeated Norway by eight wickets with Buddhika Mendis following up his yesterday’s 104 with a fine 90 and Narender Reddy contributing a flawless 82 not out.

Elsewhere, Botswana defeated Bahrain by 69 runs at the Singapore Cricket Club and Malaysia beat Guernsey by four wickets at the Indian Association ground.

The day, however, belonged to host Singapore which was guaranteed a place in the ICC WCL Div.5 irrespective of how its final game against Malaysia on Friday pans out.

Mendis put in another outstanding performance with the bat and was ably assisted by Reddy. Having set a target of 229 by Norway, whose captain Zaheer Ashiq made an impressive 92 off 71 balls, Singapore’s first wicket fell at the end of the first over.

Dharmichand Mulewa departed for four but Reddy arrived at the crease and together with Mendis put on 147 runs for the second wicket to repair the damage. The partnership ended when a mix-up brought the demise of Demise of Mendis and denied him second successive century.

However, Reddy stayed at the crease and ensured Singapore achieved victory without any further hiccups. Reddy was 82 not out and Singapore captain Chetan Suryawanshi was 34 not out when the winning shot was hit with more than 12 overs to spare.

Mendis said: “We’ve been practicing really hard ahead of this tournament and all we wanted to do was to secure promotion to the next league, which is what we’ve done with this win.

“We knew after Bahrain had lost to Botswana, we would be guaranteed a spot in Division 5 no matter we finish first or second. We obviously want to finish on top of the table but the most important thing for us is that we’re going to the next division no matter what.”

At Kalang: Norway 229 all out, 49.1 overs (Zaheer Ashiq 92; RA Hussein 2-14)
Singapore 230-2, 37.3 overs (Buddhika Mendis 90, Narender Reddy 82*)
Singapore won eight wickets