Papua New Guinea continued their exceptional run in the Men’s World T20 Qualifier and now will meet Netherlands for the final glory. Namibia and the Irelands, the teams which were beaten in the semi-final will meet each other to play the third-place play-off.
Netherlands v Ireland
Netherlands were sent to bat by Ireland and although there were contributions from Ben Cooper and the captain Pieter Seelaar, they had to depend on the experience of Ryan ten Doeschate and Roelof ver der Merwe to get the final push. After Max O’Dowd and Colin Ackermann’s early dismissals, Cooper and Seelaar added 44 runs. Once Seelaar was dismissed for 21, Cooper added 31 with Doeschate but when he was dismissed for 37 off 35 runs in the last ball of the 15th over, Netherlands were 102/4. This is when Doeschate and ven der Merwe changed the course of the match with their 56 runs partnership in last five overs. Doeschate remained unbeaten with 25-ball 43 whereas his partner was unbeaten on 5 off 16 balls and provided their bowlers a respective total to defend.
Ireland had a good start in the chase as Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien added 52 runs in seven overs. Once both the openers were out Delany and Andy Balbirnie tried building a partnership but back-to-back wickets from Fred Klaassen made them 84/4 in the 13th over. They lost another wicket next over and when captain Seelaar also took two wickets in two balls in the 16th over, the victory was effectively sealed. Ireland could scramble to 137/9 thanks to George Dockrell’s 12-ball 25 but end of the day Netherlands were comfortable winner and progressed to the finale.
Netherlands 158 for 4 (ten Doeschate 43*, Cooper 37, Young 2-39) beat Ireland 137 for 9 (Stirling 29, Seelaar 3-17, van der Merwe 2-19, Klaassen 2-32) by 21 runs
PNG v Namibia
PNG bowlers delivered a fantastic performance to defend a below-par total with ease. Choosing to bat first, PNG did not have a good start as they lost Tony Ura, captain Assad Vala and Lega Siaka for just 31 runs in first six overs. Charles Amini and Sese Bau added 50 runs in the 4th wicket partnership and although Amini was dismissed for 31 by the Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus, Bau remained not out and added handy runs with Kiplin Doriga and Norman Vanua. PNG finished on 130/5 in their 20 overs with Bau unbeaten on 40 off 38 balls and Vanua unbeaten on 20 off 13 balls. For Namibia JJ SMit finished with 2/29 in his four overs.
Namibia chase did not take off well as they lost opener Nikolaas Davin in the second over. Stephen Baard battled hard to score 34 off 40 balls. He added handy partnerships with JP Kotze and Craig Williams but the PNG bowlers bowled with great control to restrict the run rate well below six. Once Baard and Erasmus were dismissed it was an impossible task for them and they could labour to only 112/5 in their 20 overs. PNG utilized eight bowlers and Vanua was the star with 2/16 in his four overs.
PNG 130 for 5 (Bau 40*, Amini 31, Smit 2-29) beat Namibia 112 for 5 (Baard 34, Kotze 30, Vanua 2-16) by 18 runs