Day 7 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualifier was a memorable one as Scotland posted the first 200+ score of the tournament to beat Bermuda. Interestingly the other three fixtures of the day were low scoring as Papua New Guinea, the UAE, and Hong Kong won them.
Netherlands v PNG
A low scoring match between Netherlands and Papua New Guinea saw the latter winning the fixture by five wickets quite comfortably. Timm van der Gugten’s unbeaten 40 off 21 in the later part of the Netherlands innings helped them post 126/7. The chase for PNG was led by their skipper Assad Vala (37). Apart from Vala, his opening partner Tony Ura (23) and Sese Bau (34*) contributed. Bau remained unbeaten till the end to take PNG home. PNG moved to the top of the Group A after ending the winning streak of Netherlands.
Papua New Guinea 127 for 5 (Vala 37, Bau 34*, van der Merwe 2-27) beat Netherlands 126 for 7 (van der Gugten 40*, Amini 2-34) by five wickets
Nigeria v UAE
The second match of the day saw Nigeria being crushed by the UAE by five wickets with 45 balls to spare. Nigeria were asked to bat first and their top order had a major collapse. Their top three batsmen went for 2,0, and 4. Thanks to the partnership between Chimezie Onwuzulike (46*) and Sesan Adedeji (51) Nigeria could cross 100-run mark. Chasing 112 runs from 20 overs was an easy one apparently but Nigeria did try their bit to defend that small score. Eventually the UAE won the match led by Zawar Farid (55) and Muhammad Usman (20*).
UAE 112 for 5 (Farid 55, Okpe 2-22) beat Nigeria 111 for 3 (Adedeji 51*, Onwuzulike 46*) by five wickets
Canada v Hong Kong
Electing to bat first Hong Kong were wrapped up for 150 for the loss of seven wickets. Kinchit Shah remained unbeaten for 59 as the five bowlers used by Canada shared five Hong Kong wickets amongst them. Nasrulla Khan (3/25) and Kyle Christie (2/23) ran through the batting line-up of Canada to restrict them for just 118 runs for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Rizwan Cheema was the highest scorer for Canada with 20 runs.
Hong Kong 150 for 7 (Shah 59*, Barkat 27) beat Canada 118 for 9 (Cheema 20, Rana 3-25, Christie 2-23) by 32 runs
Bermuda v Scotland
Bermuda won the toss and elected to field first. But eventually Scotland were benefitted by the call. They posted a mammoth score of 204/4; thanks to two half centuries scored by George Munsey (51) and Calum MacLeod (74). It was mainly MacLeod’s quick innings off just 34 runs that helped Scotland setting that total. He also went past 1000-run mark in this format with this career best T20I knock. Delray Rawlins (46) and Kamau Leverock (43*) tried to chase down without help from any other batter. Bermuda kept losing wickets at regular intervals as Scotland sealed fixture by 46 runs.
Scotland 204 for 4 (MacLeod 74, Munsey 51) beat Bermuda 8 for 158 by 46 runs