Co-hosts, the West Indies and the USA have made winning starts to this year’s ICC Men’s Twenty/20 Cricket World Cup.
Yesterday, the West Indies survived a scare before beating Papua New Guinea by 5 wickets with 6 balls remaining in Group “C” at Providence Stadium in Guyana but the victory was not with some anxious moments for the West Indies.
They won the toss, fielded first and contained Papua New Guinea to 136-8 off 20-overs with Sese Bau (Say-say Ba-u) scoring 50 off 43 balls including 6 fours and 1 six.
Papua New Guinea were struggling on 1-5, 2-7, 3-34, and 4-50 before recovering to their eventual total. The successful bowlers for the West Indies were medium pacer, Andre Russell (2-19), fast bowler, Alzarri Joseph (2-34), left-arm, leg-spinner, Akeal Hosein (1-9), fast bowler, Romario Shepherd 1-23, and left and left-arm, leg-spinner, Gudakesh Motie (1-24).
The West Indies reply was very shaky. Johnson Charles went without scoring (1-8), Nicholas Pooran made 27 (2-2-61), Brandon King contributed 34 off 29 balls (3-63), Rovman Powel added 15 (4-85) and Sherfane Rutherford made 2, before Roston Chase (42 not out) and Andre Russell (15 not out) saw the team safely to victory.
The wickets for Papua New Guinea were shared between off-spinner, Assad Vala (2-28), with a wicket each to medium pacers, Alei Nao (1-9) and Chad Soper (1-19), and left-arm, leg-spinner, John Kariko (1-17).
Final scores: Papua New Guinea 136-8 off 20-overs, the West Indies 137-5 off 19-overs.
