Scotland beat Papua New Guinea by 17 runs to clinch the second win in a row which bolsters the team’s qualification chances to the Super12s round. Papua New Guinea is out of the Qualifications equation after losing to Oman and now to Scotland.
Scotland lost Coetzer and Munsey when the score read just 22. But Matthew Cross and Richie Berrington had other plans as the pair took over the game and stacked up 92 runs for the third wicket in just 65 deliveries. However, once Cross fell to Atai, the Scottish innings skittled, and after a 33 runs partnership between Calum McLeod and Richie Berrington, the team lost its last six wickets for just 16 runs, ending up at 168.
Berrington played an impressive knock of 70 runs in 49 balls. Meanwhile, Matthew Cross made 45 runs in 36 balls. For PNG, Kabua Morea took four wickets for 31 runs while Chad Soper returned impressive figures of three wickets for 24 runs.
Once again, Papua New Guinea had a horrid start and lost the first two wickets for just 20 runs. Assad Vala plugged some boundaries but his aggressiveness cost him his wicket as he got out to Evans after scoring 18. Amini also fell soon after and the PNG scorecard read five for 35 runs when Atai also got out.
This is when Sese Bau and Norman Vanua put up a 32 runs partnership but Bau fell after making 24 runs off a Greaves delivery. Kiplin Doriga hit a four and a six but lost his wicket to spinner Mark Watt after scoring 18 runs. Vanua fell to Davey after a fighting 47 runs off 37 balls and the chase got pretty much done there.
Chad Soper played a decent hand of 16 runs in 11 balls but it proved to be too little and too late. Josh Davey finished with superb figures of four wickets for 18 runs. Richie Berrington got the Player of the Match award for his match-defining knock.