PNG fighting spirit too little too late as Berrington, Davey power Scotland to second win

Scotland made it two in two on Tuesday, 19 October after clinching a victory against Papua New Guinea at the Oman Cricket Academy. The win did not come easy with Norman Vanua and Kiplin Doriga starting to brew a late uprising against the Scottish players. The two batsmen were hitting the ball mercilessly between overs 14 to 16 and brought the equation down to just 46 runs from the last 24 balls, and it seemed like Scotland were about to have a taste of their medicine. 

But first Mark Watt and then Josh Davey bowled brilliantly to squeeze the run-scoring as well as get both batters out to make it almost impossible for two new PNG batters to get 38 off the last two overs. However, Chad Soper didn’t lose hope and thanks to six on the last ball of the 19th over from number 11 Kabua Morea, the Barramundis needed 24 from the last six balls. 

With Soper hitting the second ball of Josh Davey’s and innings’ last over for a huge six over the cow corner, for a moment ‘remember the name’ must have flashed in front of the eyes of the supporters of the Pacific nation. But it wasn’t to be as Davey, who had bowled brilliantly up until then bowled a slower bouncer, the same ploy he used against Vanua, and got the wicket of Soper to end the innings and win it for his team by 17 runs. 

Davey’s figures of 4-18 are now the best bowling figures for a Scotland player in a T20 World Cup game. Though PNG got so close at the end, it didn’t look like happening when they had lost five wickets for 35 runs and had gotten off to a worse possible start. Their top two batters in skipper Assad Vala and Charles Amini were gone and it was only up to Vanua and Sese Bau to get the team as close as possible to the target. 

The two partnerships of 37 between Bau and Vanua and 53 between Vanua and Doriga were crucial in getting where PNG eventually got to. 

Earlier in the day, after winning the toss Scottish skipper Kyle Coetzer decided to bat first. Though Coetzer himself and the other opener George Munsey failed once again, Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross steadied the ship with a 92 run stand. Though Cross got out on 45, Berrington made sure that he completed his third T20I fifty. 

The Scotts were going great guns until the 17th over with Berrington touching his 70 run mark. However, in the last three overs, they lost track and lost six wickets for just 19 runs as the PNG team pulled back and restricted the Scots to only 165-9. Morea was the pick of the bowlers for PNG as he ended up with figures of 4-31 in his four overs. 

The Scots are in for a great game once again when they face Oman in their last game and that game might just turn out to be a virtual qualifier if Bangladesh go on to win against Oman and PNG in their next two games.