Papua New Guinea (PNG) has secured itself promotion to Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 2 (WCL Div. 2) to be held in April in Dubai after Rarua Dikana’s men beat Denmark in Hong Kong today to take its fourth victory in a row of Pepsi ICC WCL Div. 3.
Usman Shuja was the star against Oman. Photo courtesy of ICC
Usman Shuja led USA to victory today, helping to secure the Americans a win over Oman in a tightly fought contest at Hong Kong Cricket Club, while hosts Hong Kong battled to beat Italy by one wicket.
By PNG securing promotion today, it means Friday’s games will be crucial for the five other teams in the tournament with regards to the second available promotion spot, the two relegation places and the two berths that will see two sides remain in WCL Div. 3.
After a disappointing defeat to PNG yesterday, USA were looking to bounce back from two losses and that is exactly what Steve Massiah’s side did, but victory over the Sultanate of Oman did not come easily for the Americans.
Having won the toss, Massiah’s men proceeded to work their way through the Oman batting line up with some strong bowling coming from spinner Asif Khan as well as bowlers Shuja and Orlando Baker.
Oman’s batsmen failed to make partnerships in today’s match and when Baker and Asif dismissed key middle-order men Hemal Mehta, Sultan Ahmed and Awal Khan the Americans had the side on the backfoot ? eventually skittling the team for 122.
After the innings break, the USA batsmen took to the field overlooked by the green mountains of Hong Kong and preceded to repeat the poor performances of yesterday. The top order once again collapsed, this time to the bowling of Rajesh Kumar with the side at one point three wickets down for just three runs.
It looked set to be an Omani victory as Carl Wright, Lennox Cush, Sushil Nadkarni, Ritesh Kadu and debutant Durale Forrest were all sent packing. But, all was not as it seemed when Shuja and Asif took to the crease and the duo bedded in to grind out victory by two wickets for the USA.
A delighted Shuja said, “I just wanted to bat it out today and try to score as many runs as possible and help us to get over some of the embarrassment of yesterday’s defeat. Once I’d settled in and the ball had gotten older I felt I could play a bit more freely and help us on our way to winning.
“When the top order collapsed I realised I needed to come in and bat patiently, something I think they didn’t do, and it worked out in our favour as myself and Asif knocked off the runs. It’s now about us hopefully beating Italy and keeping ourselves in contention for promotion if we can.”
PNG continued its domination of this event today seeing off with ease a challenge from Denmark at Kowloon Cricket Club. The Danes batting line-up failed once again today with the top seven batsmen in the side all departing after being caught in the field by the in-form Papua New Guineans.
Aftab Ahmed was the top scorer for the Danish side with his 39 not out to help his side to 112, but his efforts were in vain as Loa Nou, Hitolo Areni, Chris Amini and Chris Kent claimed two wickets each leaving one each for their captain Rarua Dikana and team-mate Mahuru Dai.
Having given the Danish a master class in fielding, it was then up to PNG’s batsmen to showcase their abilities to the European side. Unfortunately for Asad Vala it wasn’t his day to give a batting exhibition, with the 23-year-old departing for a duck, but he made way for Chris Amini who alongside Tony Ura knocked off the required runs in just 22.3 overs.
Today’s victory has secured the side a place in Saturday’s final no matter what the results are on Friday when all the teams square up for the final round-robin section of the tournament.
PNG head coach Andy Bichel was pleased with the side’s strong performance and sees the promotion to WCL Div. 2 a culmination of hard work that has paid off. “I am immensely proud of the boys and feel that qualifying for Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 2 achieves a goal we set ourselves18 months ago.
“The final on Saturday is now a short term goal and taking home the title is an important part of finishing this tournament,” said Bichel.
Man of the match Chris Amini said, “It is nice to finally contribute at this level and have a really strong game. I’ve not won an ICC man of the match award since Pepsi ICC WCL Div. 3 in 2007 in Darwin and I feel proud to again achieve this honour.
“I feel at this stage as a team we are approaching our best and I know we still have more to achieve.”
In the highest scoring fixture of the day, Hong Kong battled against Italy in a thrilling match that saw the hosts claim victory by one wicket with just two balls remaining.
Alessandro Bonora won the toss at Mission Road and elected to bat first and despite his opening batsmen failing to fire, he put on a hard-fought 77 while Peter Petricola provided his first century of the tournament to help the Italians to a total of 235 on a track that saw little action for the bowlers.
When Hong Kong took to the field the top order continued its poor run of form and none of the side made a solid partnership until the arrival of the middle order duo Nizakat Khan and Waqas Barkat and then later on captain Najeeb Amar.
The trio helped the side to rise up from being 68-5 to a point where victory was in the side’s grasp but with one wicket remaining and only one over to go, the match looked sure to be in the grasp of the Italians. However, tail-end batsman Aizaz Khan had other ideas, smashing his way to 24 in just eight balls, including three sixes, to help steer the side to victory with just two balls remaining.
Hong Kong captain Amar was naturally thrilled with the side’s comeback but is keen to remain focussed on Friday’s big fixture against table-toppers PNG.
“I’m obviously relieved we won today after a tightly fought game where the track wasn’t really giving anything to our bowlers but when it came to us making the runs the task fell to the bottom order. They deserve credit for how they played, all of them taking responsibility to help us to victory.
“Friday we face PNG who have been having a great tournament here but I’m not worried, we’ve a psychological advantage over them. We beat them in the warm-ups with a Hong Kong side that wasn’t full strength so I believe we’ve the upper hand going into Friday’s game, not them,” said Amar.
Tomorrow is a rest day with play resuming on Friday.
Score summaries (Day Four):
At HKCC: Oman 112 all out, 37.4 overs (Desai 28, Sultan 30; Asif 3-11, Baker 2-16, Shuja 2-22)
USA 123-8, 34 overs (Shuja 43 not out, Asif 39 not out; Rajesh Kumar 4-40)
USA won by two wickets
At KCC: Denmark 112 all out, 41.3 overs (Chawla 26, Aftab 39 not out; Nou 2-23, Areni 2-10, Amini 2-12, Kent 2-10)
Papua New Guinea 115-1, 22.3 overs (Ura 64 not out, Amini 43 not out)
Papua New Guinea won by nine wickets
At Mission Road: Italy 235-8, 50 overs (Bonora 40, Petricola 104 not out, Crowley 32; Irfan 2-59, Nadeem 2-47)
Hong Kong 236-9, 49.4 overs (Barqat 55 not out, Amar 52, Aizaz 24 not out; Munasinghe 4-60)
Hong Kong won by one wicket
