Papua New Guinea's hopes of reaching the T20 Cricket World Cup main draw are all but over after a 17 run defeat by Scotland in their second pool match.
Papua New Guinea's Sese Bau (R) bumps his fist with teammate Norman Vanua during their T20 World Cup clash against Scotland. Photo: AFP
Fresh from their upset win over Bangladesh, Scotland posted 165 for 9 from their 20 overs after electing to bat first, despite losing four wickets in the final over.
Kabua Morea grabbed three of those, as well as PNG's first wicket of the tournament to finish with 4 for 31 from four overs, while Chad Soper also impressed with figures of 3 for 24.
Screamer from Morea!
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 19, 2021
Coetzer’s stumps are dismantled by a from Papua New Guinea’s Kabua Morea.#T20WorldCup #SCOvPNG pic.twitter.com/MAGPdz9KBG
In reply, PNG slumped to 35 for 5 after six overs, as Tony Ura, Lega Siaka, Charles Amini and Simon Atai were all dismissed for single figures.
Norman Vanua anchored the Barramundis chase with 47 runs from 37 balls, including two sixes and shared in a 37 and 50 run stands with Sese Bau (24) and Kiplin Doriga (18), but the required run rate proved too much as PNG were bowled out with three balls remaining.
The Barramundis also made a horror start in their first up loss to Oman and captain Assad Vala said it was an area of their game that still needs improvement.
"Before the game we spoke about our starts (but) we didn't start well with the first two overs, giving away 20 runs and the batting as well losing a wicket and scoring only three or four runs," he said.
"We spoke about our starts and we just couldn't manage to get those starts."
Bangladesh beat Oman by 26 runs in the other Group B clash and PNG will have to beat the sixth ranked Tigers in their final group match and hope Scotland beat the tournament hosts to have any hope of reaching the "Super 12" main draw.
Assad Vala said there are still some positives they can take into Thursday's game.
"We didn't start well but I think the middle order and the lower order played really well today, the batting group," he said.
"In terms of our bowling and our fielding I think that's the standard we know we can improve as well, so we have one game to go against Bangladesh and hopefully we can keep improving every game we play."
