Friday was again a busy day in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier as the tournament progressed towards the end of the group stage with as many as four matches, two from each group. In Group A, Papua New Guinea made huge stride towards their World Cup qualification as Namibia also kept their chances open for a top three spot. In Group B, there were easy wins for Ireland and Oman as they have started to gain momentum as the end of the tournament approaching.
Papua New Guinea vs Singapore
A strong batting performance with a few hiccups took PNG to a comfortable win against Singapore. They started well with captain Assad Vala and Tony Ura adding 61 runs in six overs. Assad was the first man to go for 24 off 18. They also lost Tony Ura for 30 and Lega Siaka for 13 with the score on 81 as Navin Param took two wickets in his first two deliveries. At 101/4, it looked like Singapore were back in the match and they could restrict PNG for around 160. But strong hitting from Charles Amini and Kiplin Doriga who scored 41 off 28 and 43 off 27 respectively took them to 180/4.
Singpaore did not get going from the start and could only labour to 137/9 in 20 overs. All the bowlers bowled well for PNG with Damien Ravu finishing with 4/18 in his four overs.
Brief scores: Papua New Guinea 180 for 4 (Doriga 43*, Amini 41*, Ura 30, Param 2-24) beat Singapore 137 for 9 (David 44, Ravu 4-18) by 43 runs.
Ireland vs Jersey
Mark Adair went back to his wicket taking ways and his three wickets helped Ireland to an easy win and get him the Man-of-the-Match. Adair got his first wicket in the first over of the match and after a brief partnership of 36 runs between Nick Greenwood and Ben Stevens, Jersey middle order collapsed and they could score 105 in their 20 overs. Adair finished with three wickets for 10 runs as Gareth Delany took two wickets.
It was never going to be enough for Ireland and an unbeaten 37-ball 58 from Paul Stirling ensured that Ireland completed the win with six overs to go.
Brief scores: Ireland 110 for 2 (Stirling 58,* 1-16) beat Jersey 105 (Stevens 25, Adair 3-10, Delany 2-12) by eight wickets.
Namibia vs Kenya
Namibia helped their case of competing for a World Cup by a massive 87 runs win over a lacklustre Kanya side. Batting first, Namibia posted a strong 181/5 in their 20 overs thanks to fifties from Stephan Baard (51 off 39) and Gerhard Erasmus whose unbeaten 52 off 25 balls helped them to add 73 runs in last 5.2 overs.
Kenya’s innings had a terrible start and they never recovered. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals and they were finally bowled out for 94 in 18.5 overs. Left arm orthodox spinner Bernard Scholtz took 4/12 where as JJ Smit took 3/19.
Brief scores: Namibia 181 for 5 (Erasmus 52*, Baard 51) beat Kenya 94 (Patel 30, Scholtz 4-12, Smit 3-19) by 87 runs.
Canada vs Oman
Canada and Oman were expected to provide an exciting clash but a good, tight bowling performance of Oman spinners followed by a record stand for the second wicket helped them to clinch an important win and helped them qualify for the next round.
Canada started well as their debutant Srimantha Wijeyeratne played a good attacking start with 56 off 36 balls. However, the runs were controlled by the spinners as the captain Zeeshan Maqsood took 3/25 and Khawar Ali got 2/18 in his four overs and Canada finished with 144/9 which also included 3 run outs in the 20th over. Although Khawar Ali was dismissed early, Oman were always in control of their chase as Jatinder Singh and Aqib Ilyas added a record 126 runs to help them complete the chase within 15 overs.
Brief scores: Oman 145 for 2 (Jatinder 68*, Ilyas 60) beat Canada 144 for 9 (Wijeyeratne 56, Maqsood 3-25, Khawar 2-18) by eight wickets.