Scotland close to T20 World Cup big stage in UAE after beating PNG

Scotland wiped out spirited debutants Papua New Guinea’s chances of advancing in the T20 World Cup after a 17-run victory in Oman on Tuesday.

Scotland, who upset Bangladesh in their opening game, were fancied to progress from Group B in the first round to the Super 12.

PNG were crushed by 10 wickets in their opening game by co-hosts Oman and will meet Bangladesh in their last group game on Thursday.

A 92-run partnership between Richie Barrington (70) and wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Cross (45) formed the cornerstone of Scotland’s total of 165-9 despite PNG claiming six wickets for just 15 runs in the last two overs.

PNG came back strongly after losing half of their side within the first six overs for just 35 runs, but were bowled out for 148 with three balls remaining.

Norman Vanua gave PNG an outside chance with a top score of 47 while Kiplin Doriga (18) and Chad Soper (16) added late runs.

Fast bowler Josh Davey picked up 4-18 that included the key wicket of Vanua, who was caught behind in the 18th over.

Earlier, Barrington featured in the beefy third-wicket stand as he struck six fours and three sixes off 49 balls. Cross consumed 36 balls and smashed two fours and two sixes.

PNG did well late in the innings when Charles Amini made two good catches in the deep to dismiss Cross and Barrington. Fast bowler Kabua Morea (4-31) claimed three of his wickets in the last over during which Michael Leask (9) was run out.

PNG skipper Assad Vala praised his teammate and all-rounder Vanua and said that he likes playing against Scotland.

“The batsmen haven’t shown it yet but the lower order likes to hit the ball,” he said. “Vanua is a really good batsman, batting all-rounder, bowling all-rounder you can call whatever you want. He likes playing against Scotland, scored few runs against them, he was on again today.

“If we can play more games against teams like Scotland and Tier 1 nations, we can express ourselves more. We haven’t started well in both games. Our bowling gave away runs at the start, we pegged them back, we bowled well in the end. We believed we could chase it down, but we didn’t start as well as we would have liked, “Scotland are a very good bowling team, they put us under pressure early on. We fought back really well in the middle and towards the end but it wasn’t enough,” he said.

Scotland close to T20 World Cup big stage in UAE after beating PNG