da brwin： USA brush aside PNG to notch second win while Namibia overpower Canada
da spicy bet： Peter Della Penna in Windhoek23-Apr-2019Left-arm swing bowler Bilal Khan bagged four wickets on one of his favourite hunting grounds at Wanderers before Jatinder Singh’s half-century paced a simple chase. Oman thus continued their undefeated run at WCL Division 2 with a seven-wicket win over Hong Kong. Oman are now in the driver’s seat for one of the four ODI status berths up for grabs in the tournament, and can be the first team to clinch it with a win over Namibia on Wednesday.Man of the Match Bilal struck a massive blow in the third over, claiming the tournament’s leading scorer Anshy Rath for just 3, caught in the slips by Jatinder. Hong Kong’s innings finally started to stabilise around Babar Hayat and Tanwir Afzal, who added 62 for the fifth wicket to take them to 109 for 4 by the 32nd, but Bilal’s intervention broke the stand with Tanwir dismissed for 32.Hayat carried on to top-score with 56, but was the third of legspinning allrounder Khawar Ali’s victims, leaving Hong Kong 149 for 7. Bilal was then brought back to wipe out the tail in the 48th over. A run out of last recognised batsman Scott McKechnie for 26 was followed by wickets on back-to-back balls for Bilal, which finished Hong Kong off for 176 with two overs unused.Oman faced little pressure in the chase, with the Hong Kong bowling unit lacking any spark as Jatinder and Khawar coasted through a 79-run opening stand in the first 21 overs. Khawar was run-out for 28 to break the stand, but Jatinder compiled 49 runs in tandem with Aqib Ilyas before both fell in quick succession to the spin duo of Kinchit Shah and Jhatavedh Subramanyan. Captain Zeeshan Maqsood and Mohammad Nadeem knocked off the remaining 43 runs without much fuss. Nadeem ended unbeaten on 31, and has yet to be dismissed in the tournament.The last time these two teams met in one-day cricket was in 2011 at WCL Division 3 in Hong Kong, when Papua New Guinea sent USA in to bat under a heavy cloud cover and bowled them out for 44. It took eight years, but USA finally exacted a heavy dose of revenge. The new-ball exploits of Ali Khan and an incisive spell of left-arm spin by Karima Gore decimated the PNG middle order.Monank Patel drives over mid-off•Peter Della Penna
On a ground where chasing targets has traditionally been best after the pitch flattens out in the afternoon sun, PNG chose to bat first at the toss and paid the price as Ali Khan produced another hostile spell of fast bowling to take three wickets in the Powerplay, giving him a tournament-best 12 wickets after three matches. It began with a brute of a delivery to Tony Ura, who edged to Steven Taylor at second slip, before a pair of inswingers trapped Sese Bau and Assad Vala leg before to leave PNG 19 for 3.Gore arrived in the 24th but attacked the stumps from ball one. His first three wickets were lbw decisions. Chad Soper and Lega Siaka prodded down the wrong line to arm balls before Jason Kila was late on a sweep. Damien Ravu was bowled by Gore for the final wicket as the innings lasted just 39.3 overs.Monank Patel and Xavier Marshall batted ten overs before lunch to take USA to 49 for no loss. PNG extended a streak of three maidens with two more to start after the break, but Monank and Marshall exploded shortly thereafter, scoring 79 off the next 43 balls to end the match. Monank took Siaka’s part-time spin apart in the 19th, driving three sixes in a 22-run frame, and was named Man of the Match.Stephan Baard’s 90 at the top of the order was bookended by an unbeaten 65 from Craig Williams as Namibia bounced back from their final-over loss to USA to notch a 98-run win over Canada. Namibia moves to 2-1 with the win while Canada remains the only winless team in the tournament at 0-3, as their hopes of reclaiming ODI status hang by a thread.Baard and Jean Bredenkamp added 73 for the second wicket to steady the innings after the loss of JP Kotze in the Powerplay for just 6. Bredenkamp eventually fell to left-arm spinner Saad bin Zafar, who along with Nikhil Dutta took two wickets each to slow down Namibia in the middle stage of the innings.But Williams produced half-century stands with Baard and JJ Smit to keep Namibia on course for a well-above par total at United’s sluggish outfield. Smit clubbed three sixes in his 35 off 23 balls to dominate a 51-run stand with Williams before falling in the 49th over to Romesh Eranga.Canada’s batting struggles in Namibia continued as six of the top seven got starts but none passed Rodrigo Thomas’ 28. Dilon Heyliger wound up top-scoring from No. 10 with an unbeaten 29 to save Canada from taking an even bigger hit to their net run rate.
