Scotland recovered from their first-round defeat in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup qualifier when they defeated Kenya by 31 runs. Richie Berrington played the lead role with Bat and Ball when he hit 27 for the first time to help Scotland reach a total of 171 out of his 20 overs for six.
Scotland had problems with 98-4, but Tom Sole (33, not out) and Calum MacLeod (30) with Berrington gave them a good record.
Kenya, however, threatened to defeat the Scots with two defeats when it was well placed 90-1 after Irfan Karim’s first T20I fifty, but Berrington scored twice in the 15th when Scotland proved too strong.
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In the final game of the day, the UAE was inspired to defeat Ireland by five wickets. Rohan Mustafa scored 39 of 16 and scored four goals as the hosts hunted the 125 from Ireland in just 17 overs.
In Group A, Norman Vanua scored a hat-trick when PNG defeated Bermuda with ten wins.
Vanua’s three-for-14 saw Bermuda from 17.2 to 89 before a fifty from Captain Assad Vala alongside Tony Ura steered PNG to their destination without a wicket surviving in eleventh.
In the meantime, the Netherlands took two wins from two wins, as their result was 140 to 6 out of 20 overs for Namibia with 44 wins too much.
Brandon Glover and Paul van Meekeren both drew three when Craig Williams made the only resistance for Namibia at 27, scoring 96 minutes, while Ryan Ten Doeschate scored a modest overall win for the Netherlands at 59.
In Group B, Jersey was led by Jonty Jenners 57, who scored 184-4 in the 63rd win over Nigeria.
PNG vs Bermuda
Norman Vanua, PNG’s bowler, took a hat-trick girl as his team blew away Bermuda and kicked them out for 89 in 17.2 Overs.
Vanua scored a threefold hit score at 14, while he was supported by Nosaina Pokana’s double 18x hit rate when Delray Rawlins (25) scored the first for Bermuda.
In the chase, PNG aggressively defeated its target and reached it after just 10.2 overs without losing a wicket, thanks to an unbeaten half-century of Assad Vala (53 out) alongside Tony Ura (33 not out).
PNG captain Assad Vala said, “Today was a really good performance, they are a really dangerous team, and if somebody gets out, they can take the game and we’ve changed the bowling over and over again.”
“We do not look too far ahead, we want to progress game by match and we know we have to do our best. “Bermuda captain Dion Stovell said: “We did not stick to the top of the board and it’s difficult to recover from eleven to five.”
“PNG has done a tremendous job of fighting and fighting, and I think we just beat each other today. “It’s time to rethink our game plan, we have to show our talent to the world because sometimes I feel like we’re not disciplined.”
Jersey vs Nigeria
Jonty Jenner’s T20I jersey, fifty (57 not eliminated), led the jersey to a sovereign total of 184-4 from 20 overs which Nigeria never reached.
Jenner was nicknamed by Nick Greenwood (43), who scored his highest T20I career value, as well as two-twenties by opener Nick Ferraby and Harrison Carlyon – Daniel Ajekun, the top candidate of the Nigerian bowlers, with one in 16.
As a result, Leke Oyede took first place with 39 points, but Nigeria could not keep up when jersey duo Elliot Miles (two for 22) and Dominic Blampied (two for 24) each scored two goals.
Jersey captain Charles Perchard said: “I was satisfied with the overall performance. I thought the guys in the power play have set us down well with some good aggression.
“It was great to see that Jonty did not reach the finish, and we underpinned our shot with a bit of bowling and fielding in the second innings, even though there were a few too many loose balls.
“We have not played on the pitch next door [where Jersey plays next], and we may need to adjust our game slightly, but I was satisfied with the cricket brand that we played, and if we play like that, we have hopefully a good result against Canada. “
Nigeria captain Ademola Onikoyi said: “At some point during the game, we lost some momentum and Jersey showed his superiority in beating.
“180 on a track like this was still to come and when we had three of them, we thought we had the match under control. One or two batsmen took it from us.
“I was glad to see that we have some nerves in our system today, but we need to improve our hit rate if we beat for the next game.”
Netherlands vs Namibia
The Dutch sailors paid Namibia’s hopes of a 141 victory when they lost all 96 at 19 Overs thanks to three wickets each by Brandon Glover (three for 15) and Paul van Meekeren (three for 16).
Craig Williams scored a goal for Namibia at 27, but never recovered from a 27: 3 when the Netherlands won the first two games as the first team.
Prior to that, Ryan ten Doeschate hit 59 when the Netherlands fell back 66-4 and were in danger of outperforming overall as Jan Frylinck scored three for Namibia for 25.
Dutch captain Pieter Seelaar said: “I thought it was a fantastic win, from the beginning it was clear that the wicket would not be as good as yesterday, but we stayed well in midfield.”
“We said that 140 on this wicket was definitely a win, and I think our bowlers took on the task and beat the wicket, which made it pretty hard to play the big shots.
“We are not as free-flowing as we would have liked, especially when batting, but our bowling ranks and fielding were brilliant and I think that’s something we need to push forward.”
Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus said: “We were very good at patches and started very well, but the partnership between Ryan ten Doeschate and Roelof van der Merwe stretched the innings and brought them to a decent score on this wicket.
“We started well in the powerplay, but once we’ve lost two or three wickets, it’s always a tough one on such a wicket. “All we have to do now is a fight, we’ve seen Scotland get upset by one of the new nations in this tournament, hopefully, we can only play five or six correct T20 games, and that’s enough to qualify.”
Scotland vs Kenya
Scotland prevailed over Kenya when Richie Berrington scored the first victory of the Scots in 19 runs, three to 17 goals and five wickets.
Josh Davey (two for 25) and Safyaan Sharif (two for 28) also came on as Kenya made a promising start with 90: 1. Irfan Karim (51) scored his first T20I fifty when they finished with 139: 8 out of 20 overs.
Previously, Tom Sole (33, not eliminated) and Calum MacLeod (30) helped Scotland after 170: 6 of their 20 overs with Collins Obuya (two for 12) in the choice of Kenyan attack.
Scottish captain Kyle Coetzer said: “Richie is a great match player and has done it for us today with bat and ball.
“Irfan Karim fought brilliantly, but it was his wicket that got us going. The kick we got from the end of our innings was based on the pure resilience of how we found limits, and Tom [Sole] and Matthew [Cross] fought brilliantly.
“We were definitely behind the ball with the ball at certain points and we definitely missed opportunities today, but we are getting better and if we continue to improve we should be in a good position in the next few games.”
Kenya’s captain Shem Ngoche said, “After restricting it to 170, we felt we could hunt down this point, but unfortunately this did not happen.”
“After ten overs, we felt we had to be above the run rate, but we did not reach the limits we needed, and we made a mistake.”
“I think we have to work on our creativity, only a few people can play such punches (sweeps, reverse sweeps, etc.). That was the main difference as Scotland scored 30-40 runs with such punches. “
UAE vs Ireland
The UAE was guided by Rohan Mustafa’s all-round brilliance as he scored 39 goals with four wickets and four against Ireland for 18.
Paul Stirling (72) seemed to be preparing Ireland for a big goal, but Mustafa had other ideas to decimate the Irish mediocrity, while he was aided by Ahmed Raza (one for 17) and Junaid Siddique (one for 25).
Despite the best efforts of Mark Adair (1:21) and Boyd Rankin (1:26), Mustafa’s 39 of 16 balls led a UAE squad that never risked victory.
UAE captain Ahmed Raza said: “It’s a great feeling to beat a team with full members, and given yesterday’s game, this is a huge morale boost for us.
“You have to imagine how Stirlo (Paul Stirling) beat himself, he has brought the innings deep and to a competitive result. “I’ve known Rohan [Mustafa] for over ten years and just told him to go and express himself.”
Irish captain Gary Wilson said, “When Rohan(Mustafa) came out and played the way he did, he somehow killed the game, but I thought we’d done well after that, the UAE did well and it should not be today but we will come back strong against Oman in a few days.
“We know there are areas in our game where we need to get better, and every time you reach 125, you know this is not enough in a T20 game.”
