Papua New Guinea (PNG) captain Rarua Dikana led his side to its third successive victory here in Hong Kong at Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 3 (WCL Div. 3) as he claimed four wickets in the side’s seven-wicket win over the USA in a match that saw the USA all out for a mere 44 runs.
Rarua Dikana collects the Man of the Match award from Graeme Labrooy. Photo courtesy of ICC
Meanwhile, hosts Hong Kong bounced back from its first two defeats to beat Denmark at Mission Road as Oman made it two wins in a row after it beat Italy in the highest-scoring game of the day.
On a cold morning at Hong Kong Cricket Club, Steve Massiah lost the toss and PNG put the Americans into bat, a decision that proved decisive for Dikana and his men. The USA team’s batting failed in every possible sense with the next top scorer after Massiah’s 18 coming in the form of the 12 wides that the Papua New Guineans had bowled.
It was a bowlers’ morning at the ground with PNG’s opening duo Loa Nou and Hitolo Areni along with Dikana and Chris Amini having a fantastic start with the ball, tempting the USA batsmen into numerous situations and skittling the side for 44 runs.
Six of the USA team departed without even scoring a run and after a short break, the Papua New Guineans knocked the runs off in just six overs, but not before the side had lost three wickets, it was up to Amini and Chris Kent to guide the side to a third win.
Man of the match Dikana for his match figures of four wickets for just one run was pleased to see his bowling attack continuing the team’s winning form.
“We didn’t expect to bowl the USA out so cheaply this morning and all credit has to go to our bowlers and the way they performed today. I don’t think the USA batsmen played badly, I just think they didn’t know how to read our bowlers and our fielding was particularly strong,” said Dikana.
“A win is a win for us, but I would have liked it if we hadn’t lost those three wickets to make it to the target. However, by losing those three wickets it means those batsmen have something to focus on in our next game – by improving their performances for us.
“We can’t rest on our laurels though, we’ve another match tomorrow and we’ve got to focus on our own game and be ready for the next challenge,” the 32-year-old concluded.
Hosts Hong Kong bounced back from two successive defeats to beat Denmark by seven wickets at Mission Road. Denmark captain Michael Pedersen elected to bat first on the largest of the three grounds in use for this event but once again the Scandinavian side’s batting failed to spark.
Opener Freddie Klokker managed just 18 runs, while Yasir Iqbal departed for a duck it was once again captain Pedersen who top scored for the side.
After the departure of Pedersen for 34 and then Rizwan Mahmood for 24 there was nobody else in the side that made it into double figures as Hong Kong’s Irfan Ahmed and captain Najeeb Amar worked their magic.
It is the first time this tournament that Irfan has shown his true calibre, taking 4-23 in his eight overs and alongside his captain the 21-year-old dismissed the Danes in 36 overs for a below par score of 102 at Mission Road.
It took Hong Kong just 24.4 overs to knock the runs off but not before Klokker had stumped two of the local side and Pedersen had caught opener Roy Lansam for 19 runs. It was then up to opener Courtney Kruger to guide the side to a victory fittingly assisted by Irfan.
“It’s obviously great to finally get a win in the tournament and hopefully we can carry this momentum through to the next game against Italy,” said man of the match Irfan.
“I just seemed to be able to get things right for us when it came about to claiming the wickets with the ball moving easily in the conditions at Mission Road. We kept things tight and it paid off for us today and we showed what we are capable of doing as a side,” he concluded.
In Italy’s fixture against a rejuvenated Oman, the Italian’s set a target of 240, which at Kowloon Cricket Club is deemed a below par total at the ground, with Italy captain Alessandro Bonora finally finding his batting form with an unbeaten 124 runs.
Alongside Bonora, Damian Fernando made a steady 46 but Oman captain Hemal Mehta sent him on his way after the umpire declared him leg-before. Peter Petricola, who has been so dangerous with the bat departed for a duck off the bowling of Mehta and it was up to Bonora to guide his side to its total with little help from his lower order.
When the time came for the Omanis to knock of the runs the Italians had the side on the back-foot early on with strong bowling from Vince Pennazza and the team were reduced to 6-63. Bowler Andy Northcote was expensive and Omani Awal Khan’s 92-ball 81 that included 10 boundaries proved decisive in the match.
Awal’s partnership with Sultan Ahmed and later Amir Ali proved the turning point for the Sultanate of Oman and when Bonora bought Gayashan Munasinghe on for his final over in the 48th of the match, it was too little too late despite the 24-year-old dismissing Rajesh Kumar and it fell to Amir to score the winning runs for the side.
A disappointed Bonora said, “We’ve lost two games now, both of which were games that we could have won if we had applied ourselves better. We simply did not complete the basics – bowling, fielding and even batting.
“I may have scored 124 runs for our 240 but it was still not enough on this pitch. We need to regroup ahead of tomorrow’s game against Hong Kong. We both have one win each and tomorrow’s game is almost like a semi-final as whoever loses falls into the relegation battle.”
Oman’s captain Hemal Mehta was delighted with another victory but by no means felt it was an easy win over the Italians.
“We were definitely the most challenged in this game – Italy didn’t let us take wickets easily and credit has to go to (Alessandro) Bonora for his knock, it was outstanding and if we’d got him out early then we would have seen a much lower score on the board.
“Sultan Ahmed and Awal Khan had a great partnership and after Sultan departed and Amir Ali and Awal paired up, their run partnerships really made the difference for us. We can’t be complacent though, tomorrow we’ve got USA who we know will be wanting to bounce back after being bundled out for 44 so we need refocus to face them at HKCC,” said Mehta.
Tomorrow sees Papua New Guinea play Denmark at KCC, Oman take on USA at HKCC while hosts Hong Kong face Italy at Mission Road.
Score summaries (Day Three):
At KCC: Italy 240-8, 50 overs (Bonora 124 not out, Fernando 46; Mehta 3-40)
Oman 244-8; 48.5 overs (Desai 29, Sultan 29, Awal 81, Amir 57; Pennazza 3-72)
Oman won by one wicket
At HKCC: USA 44 all out, 20.2 overs (Dikana 4-1, Nou 2-11, Amini 2-2, Areni 2-25)
PNG 45-3, 6 overs (Vala 17, Kent 18 not out; Johnson 2-23)
PNG won by seven wickets
At Mission Road: Denmark 102 all out, 36 overs (Pedersen 34; Irfan 4-23, Najeeb 3-11)
Hong Kong 105-3, 24.4 overs (Kruger 40 not out, Chapman 29; Larsen 2-34)
Hong Kong won by seven wickets