Co-hosts West Indies survived a scare to start their Men’s T20 World Cup campaign with a five-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea in Guyana.
They needed 37 to win off the final 19 balls, but the Windies, who are two-time champions, won with six balls to spare.
Roston Chase top-scored, hitting an unbeaten 42, as his 40-run partnership with Andre Russell got them over the line after briefly being spooked by PNG.
PNG’s fell to 7-2 at the start of the third over of their innings when opener Tony Ura and Lega Siaka’s expressive batting failed to pay off.
Opener and captain Assad Vala added 21, with Sese Bao then adding 50 off 43 balls before being bowled by Alzarri Joseph to leave PNG 98-6.
Wicketkeeper Kiplin Doriga (27 not out) added late runs as they finished 136-8.
Russell and Joseph claimed two wickets each, with Akeal Hosein, Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie all taking one each.
In response, West Indies opener Johnson Charles was trapped lbw by Alei Nao for a golden duck. Nao also could have dismissed Windies wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran on a duck in the second over, with the technology showing it would have been if reviewed.
After surviving that early scare, Pooran put on a 53-run partnership with Brandon King before holing out on 27.
Vala then dismissed King (34) and Sherfane Rutherford (2), with Windies falling from 61-1 to 97-5.
Needing 37 off the last 19 balls, the experienced partnership of Chase and Russell got Windies over the line as they avoided a shock defeat.
Russell ended the 17th over by pouncing on a long hop to find six before Chase hit a four off the next ball, gifted by a PNG misfield as they scored the runs required in just 13 balls.
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I for one, hope that they qualify for the next round, so that we can cheer them on into the semifinals.
Hip, hip …🏏
Congratulations to our guys. Way to start.
Growing up, the only time I heard of Papua New Guinea was in church throwing tides and offerings for the betterment of the people in this country, the Word cricket wasn’t even apart of their vocabulary and here we are 37 off 19 balls to win. Number 4 playing Number 20.
Congratulations to West Indies Team and Team USA,for both winning their games.I would be heading to Antigua to watch the playoff games.
Cejhae Greene just clocked a 10.29. Happy he is out there competing, but the consistency leading up to an Olympic is just not there.
Greene clocked a10. flat to qualify for the Olympics a few weeks ago and in no time he is back to his usual 10.20’s which will not even getting out the Heats. Question should he make a coaching change?
Talking about consistency this girl from St. Lucia Julien Alfred, after going Pro never looks back and continue to excel, captured gold in the World Indoor Championship and is poised to shake up all the Big names in a few months time.
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