Chad Soper’s valiant efforts with bat (46*) and ball (10-4-20-2) went in vain as Papua New Guinea suffered a seven-wicket defeat to Scotland in Match 43 of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 at Al Amerat in Oman.
At No. 9, Soper struck five fours in his 46-ball stay, and stitched a 66-run stand with Damien Ravu (32) to recover PNG from 125/8 to 197 all out. Scotland then rode on Matthew Cross’s 75-ball 70 to chase down the sub-par target with seven overs to spare.
Earlier, PNG lost both Tony Ura (2) and Lega Siaka (17) inside five overs after Kyle Coetzer won the toss and asked them to bat. Assad Vala (28) held the fort for a while but received little support from Charles Amini (18), Sese Bau (10), Kiplin Doriga (11), and Jason Kila (4). Soper and Ravu then steadied the ship and took their side to a respective total.
For Scotland, Hamza Tahir and Gavin Main picked up three wickets each, but Safyaan Sharif was expensive for his two wickets. Mark Watt (0-26) went wicketless, but bowled tight ten overs.
Coming in the chase, Cross and Coetzer added 78 for the opening wicket to get Scotland off to a steady start. Calum MacLeod (45 in 79 balls) played second fiddle to Cross in their 58-run stand before George Munsey (27*) smashed the winning six to take his side past the finishing line in 43rd over.
Brief Scores: Papua New Guinea 197 in 47.4 overs (Chad Soper 46*; Gavin Main 3-33) lost to Scotland 198/4 in 43 overs (Matthew Cross 70; Chad Soper 2-20) by 6 wickets with 42 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Matthew Cross.