Singapore national cricket team

First matches

The Singapore team did play twice during the Straits Settlements team era, playing twice against WAS Oldfield's XI in 1927, losing both matches by an innings.^[8][9] They next played in 1957, drawing at home to Ceylon.^[10] Various teams visited Singapore in the 1960s, including Worcestershire.^[5]

The Interport Matches resumed in 1968 with Singapore drawing against Hong Kong. These matches were played occasionally until 1987. In 1970, the Saudara Cup match against Malaysia was played for the first time, this continues annually to the present day. Also that year, Singapore played an MCC side captain by Tony Lewis and featuring Geoff Boycott. The match was won by the MCC.^[6]

ICC membership

Singapore became an associate member of the ICC in 1974^[4] and three years later won the Saudara Cup for the first time. In 1978, Singapore played India at home, the match ending in a draw.^[6] Singapore took part in the first ICC Trophy in England in 1979 but could only finish fourth in their first round group after only beating Argentina.^[11] They finished fourth out of eight teams in their first round group in the 1982 tournament^[6] and withdrew from the 1986 tournament when several of their players couldn't get leave from work.^[5]

Singapore played in the South East Asian Tournament for the first time in 1984, playing in the event again in 1988 and 1992 (when they hosted), though they never reached the final as Bangladesh and Hong Kong finished first and second on each occasion.^[5] The final Interport Match took place in Singapore in 1987, with Hong Kong beating the home side. They returned to the ICC Trophy for the 1990 tournament in the Netherlands, beating Malaysia and Israel during the event,^[6] and failing to progress past the first round.^[12]

Singapore began playing in the Tuanku Ja'afar Cup in 1991, an annual tournament against Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand. They won the event just once, in 1994, a year in which they finished 19th out of 20 teams in the ICC Trophy. The Stan Nagaiah Trophy, an annual three match series of one-day matches against Malaysia, began the following year. Singapore played in the first ACC Trophy in 1996, beating the Maldives and Thailand^[6] but failing to go past the first round.^[13] They finished 14th in the 1997 ICC Trophy and could only beat Papua New Guinea in the 1998 ACC Trophy,^[6] again failing to go past the first round.^[14]

2000–2017

The first two major tournaments of the 21st century for Singapore got them off to a bad start as they lost all their first round matches in both the 2000 ACC Trophy in the UAE and the 2001 ICC Trophy in Ontario, their final ICC Trophy to date. They hosted the ACC Trophy in 2002, beating the Maldives and Thailand (by 325 runs) but again failing to progress beyond the first round, a performance they repeated in 2004. The finished fourth in the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament in 2004 and 2005.^[6]

Singapore began to show an improvement in their form in 2006. That year they finished third in the ACC Premier League and finally passed the first round stage in the ACC Trophy, finishing fifth to qualify for Division Five of the World Cricket League in 2008. They didn't progress beyond the first round of the 2007 ACC Twenty20 Cup, beating only Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, but captain Chaminda Ruwan did make the highest score of the tournament.^[6] In the World Cricket League Division Five tournament in Jersey, Singapore finished fifth after beating Botswana in a play-off,^[15] though they did beat Afghanistan during the first round,^[16] who went on to win the tournament.^[17]

In August 2009, Singapore hosted and won Division Six of the World Cricket League, going through the tournament undefeated and winning promotion back to Division Five.^[18] In November 2009, Singapore travelled to the UAE for the 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup.^[19] During the tournament Singapore finished third in Group A, therefore failing to progress to the semi-finals and a chance to qualify for the 2010 Asian Games. In the fifth place playoff Singapore lost to Nepal by 9 wickets to finish to tournament in sixth place.

In the 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Five, they finished fourth to remain in Division Five. Hosting the 2012 tournament, they ran out winners, moving them up to Division Four and keeping their hopes of World Cup qualification alive. Singapore has decided to dedicate their strengths in to their SEA GAMES team, where Mohammad Yusof Bin Aslam (Captain) has chosen not to participate due to conflict of interest.

In August 2017, Singapore won two medals in cricket at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games. They won the gold medal in the 20-over tournament and the silver medal in the 50-over tournament. On 26 April 2018, ICC stated in a press release that all the men's T20 matches between ICC members will have T20I status from 1 January 2019.^[20][21]

2018–present

In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Singapore and other ICC members after 1 January 2019 have the full T20I status.^[22]

Singapore played their first T20I against Qatar on 22 July 2019.^[23] On 28 July 2019, after their victory against Nepal in the regional finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier; Singapore qualified for the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier for the first time.

22 July 2019 10:00 Scorecard

Singapore  186/7 (20 overs)	v	Qatar 153/9 (20 overs)
Surendran Chandramohan 47 (39) Iqbal Hussain 4/33 (4 overs)		Tamoor Sajjad 34 (29) Janak Prakash 3/15 (4 overs)

Singapore won by 33 runs Indian Association Ground, Singapore Umpires: Viswanadan Kalidas (Mas) and Buddhi Pradhan (Nep) Player of the match: Janak Prakash (Sin)

• Singapore won the toss and elected to bat.
• First ever T20I match for Singapore.

After April 2019, Singapore will play in the 2019–21 ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League.^[24]

In September 2019, Singapore beat Zimbabwe by four runs in the third T20I match of the 2019–20 Singapore Tri-Nation Series.^[25] It was the first time that Singapore had beaten a Full Member team in an international cricket match.^[26]

29 September 2019 19:30 (D/N) Scorecard

Singapore  181/9 (18 overs)	v	Zimbabwe 177/7 (18 overs)
Manpreet Singh 41 (23) Ryan Burl 3/24 (3 overs)		Sean Williams 66 (35) Amjad Mahboob 2/20 (4 overs)

Singapore won by 4 runs Indian Association Ground, Singapore Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Balraj Manikandan (Sin) Player of the match: Sean Williams (Zim)

• Singapore's first victory against a Full Member.