BANGKOK: Saudi Arabia’s cricket team beat Maldives on Monday in the first match of a quadrangular T20 series in Thailand, less than 24 hours after they were crowned champions of the ACC Men’s Challenger Cup.

The Greens and Maldives will be joined by Thailand and Bhutan in the tournament, which will see each team play a total of four matches over the next five days with the third-place play-off and final being held on Friday.

The tournament will offer Saudi Arabia the perfect preparation before they head to Malaysia to take part in the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League playoff in which eight teams will compete in two groups in List A matches to decide who will take part in the qualifying series for the next World Cup.

Saudi Arabia made a few changes to the Challenger Cup-winning team to face the Maldives and won by an impressive margin as they batted first and won by 98 runs after making a total of 186 for the loss of six wickets in their 20 overs.

It was back to business for Faisal Khan who hit 37 runs from 21 balls as he shared an opening partnership of 67 inside the powerplay with Kashif Siddique, who went on to top score on 51 from 37 balls.

Manan Ali also hit an unbeaten 47 from 24 balls to ensure Saudi Arabia posted a useful total of 186, setting Maldives 187 to win. The islanders were soon struggling in reply, though, as Usman Najeeb took the new ball and claimed two early wickets.

Maldives batter Yoosuf Azyan could be proud of making a determined 44 from 50 balls against the Saudi Arabia bowling attack, but Saudi captain Hisham Shaikh did make plenty of bowling changes as it became clear there was no danger of Maldives reaching their target.

Leg-spinner Imran Yousaf, who had played in Saudi Arabia’s opening match of the ACC Challenger Cup as a concussion replacement for Khan, had another good day as he claimed two wickets for 11 runs and matched the figures of his skipper Shaikh.

Thailand, who should prove more of a test for Saudi Arabia, meet on Tuesday. The home side played Bhutan earlier in the opening match of the quadrangular series and gained a convincing victory as they bowled out Bhutan for 70, chasing down the target without losing a wicket.