World T20 2021 | Jatinder-Maqsood lead Oman to thumping 10-wicket win in tournament opener against PNG
World T20 2021 | Skipper Assad Vala leads PNG comeback with first-ever fifty in World Cup history
World T20 2021 | OMA vs PNG: Historic setting marks the beginning of World Cup journey
World T20 2021 | Not here just for the show, debutants Papua New Guinea have high ambitions
For the first time, a team apart from giants Australia and New Zealand from the Asia Pacific would become part of the legacy called cricket World Cup when the Barramundis from Papua new Guinea take centre stage against Oman in the first match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. This would be an iconic moment in the history of the tiny island nation as after Rugby League and Australian Rules Football (both not worldwide known games), Cricket would become the third sport where it would be participating at the biggest stage of them all. The importance of this has not yet been fully engulfed by the players, who would become the first lot to represent their country in World Cup and neither by the people down under. Assad Vala, the skipper of the PNG team summed it up in an interview with ICC. "It has been a long time coming. We have come close on many occasions. We are a couple of days away from playing our first World Cup match. The boys are looking pumped up for the game on Sunday,” Vala said on Thursday. “During this pandemic, it will mean a lot for people back home. We are trying to put a smile on their faces,” he added. However, the road to the World Cup wasn’t easy at all and neither has it been easy ever since their qualification. PNG Road to World Cup 2021 Having come agonizingly close to a World Cup Qualification spot in 2013 and 2015 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers, where they finished eighth on both occasions with only six teams qualifying, the Barramundis made sure in 2019 that they finished top of the Group in a group that comprised of the likes of established nations such as the Netherlands, Scotland and Kenya. The Vala led side won five of its six games, losing only to Scotland by four runs and finished top of the group even as it was tied with the Netherlands on points, but had a better net run rate. Although having qualified already basis their Grup topping feat, in the semi-finals, PNG beat Namibia and qualified for the final in which they were handed a seven-wicket defeat by the Netherlands. The 2019 World Cup Qualification was actually for the 2020 T20 World Cup, scheduled to take place in Australia, but due to the Pandemic, the PNG are playing the 2021 World Cup on that qualification ticket. However, ever since the Qualifier in 2019, the next time PNG got to play international cricket was in September 2021, i.e. just a month ago. It was evident in their form as they lost all four ODIs, (two each against Nepal and USA) and two T20Is (against Scotland and Namibia) coming into the World Cup. In the warm-up games also the team has suffered severe defeats and hence going into their maiden World Cup, it is the belief and togetherness of the team that has more value than the form they are in. A close-knit unit A large portion of Papua New Guinea's squad hail from in and around the Hanuabada village, a coastal town near Port Moresby and most of the players in the squad have played almost their entire cricket together, right from the age groups. The form of the team might not be at its best right now, but the people in the squad have seen it all before. They know how to come back and they have done it in the past as well. It might be the big stage that gets the players going finally. A team of all-rounders The PNG team has more than six people in the squad who can both bat and bowl. The names Charles Amini, Assad Vala, Chad Soper, Jason Kila, Gaudi Toka and Norman Vanua are the ones who can change the course of the game with both bat and ball. Apart from Toka and Kila, all of these players are experienced players. While Soper has played only six T20Is, he has an experience of 28 ODIs, in which he has scored 408 runs and taken 38 wickets with his right-arm medium-fast. The skipper Vala has also had one of the best careers so far with two T20I fifties and 3/7 as his best bowling effort, claiming 19 wickets and scoring 391 runs in only 18 games. However, the two all-rounders that matter the most are Vanua and Amini. While Vanua is a bowling all-rounder and can finish games with both bat and ball, Amini, who comes from a cricketing family holds the key as he can bat in the middle and bowl at the death and has 232 runs and 14 wickets to his name in just 16 T20Is. The big ambitions Vala in his interview also said that PNG is not here just for the showcase that they have become the third Oceania team to get to the World Cup, rather, they are here to show that they belong and they would want to get to the second round so that they can play better teams and get inspiration to qualify more in near future. “We want to play to the best of our abilities. We want to express ourselves. We want to make it to the second round to test ourselves against the best teams in cricket. We don't want this World Cup to be a one-off. We want to keep improving. We want to get exposure and knowledge against the best teams,” said Vala. But can they do it is the question? Can they get to the second round? Can they do it? The two teams that PNG can look to defeat are Oman and Scotland. While they have lost to Scotland in their previous two encounters, with the last loss being a quite big one. However, they can draw inspiration from their 2019 Qualifier clash against Scots where they remained just four short of a win. As far as the match against Oman is concerned, it is the most important for PNG. They have not played Oman before in T20 World Cup and although Oman have been at this stage before, PNG are well versed to get one past the hosts and if they can do it, their next meeting against Scotland might become a virtual qualifier for the second round. And at that stage, you never know what might happen. PNG World T20 2021 Squad Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini, Lega Siaka, Norman Vanua, Nosaina Pokana, Kipling Doriga, Tony Ura, Hiri Hiri, Gaudi Toka, Sese Bau, Damien Ravu, Kabua Vagi-Morea, Simon Atai, Jason Kila, Chad Soper, Jack Gardner. Fixures 17 Oct PNG – v Oman 19 Oct PNG– v Scotland 21 Oct PNG– v Bangladesh
World T20 2021: PNG captain Assad Vala reveals how India's cricketing legend inspired him
Papua New Guinea captain Assad Vala has revealed that he has grown up idolising former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar. “…when I was growing up, as we all know (Sachin) Tendulkar was (the) only cricketer everyone in the world knew. Tendulkar (and) probably Brian Lara as well. I just wanted to watch them bat and I see myself as a batsman,” 34-year-old Vala said in an online interaction facilitated by the ICC. Vala mentioned about Tendulkar’s knock of 241* against Australia away from home and how the batting legend stitched his innings. “There was a series in Australia, where he got nicked off four or five-times before he scored the double century. He was mentally tough and the way he planned his double century where he played straight and on-side is something I have never seen done before, just to score all his runs on the leg-side and straight-down,” he said. The World T20 will begin on October 17 when co-host Oman will be up against PNG in Al Amerat. PNG will then play Scotland on October 19 and Bangladesh on October 21 at the same venue in the group stage.
UAE Summer T20 Bash: A perfect warm-up for Ireland, Namibia, Scotland and PNG before World T20 2021
With the T20 World Cup 2021 first round around the corner, Emirates Cricket Board in partnership with Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland, Cricket Namibia, and Cricket Papua New Guinea decided to host the Summer T20 Bash, a tournament that would allow the aforementioned teams some much-needed game time before they head into the all-important World Cup. The tournament, with no final or finalist, is basically like warm-up fixtures with the only difference being that they would be treated as international T20 games. It will be hosted at the single venue of ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City (Dubai) from Tuesday, October 5th through to Sunday, October 10th. In the series, the host nation the United Arab Emirates, who have actually not qualified for the T20 World Cup 2021, will play four games, three against Ireland, and one against Namibia. In the other three games in this seven-match series, Scotland will play two games, one each against Papua New Guinea and Namibia, while Papua New Guinea & Namibia will play among themselves once as well. Thus every team in this tournament will get a hands-on experience of at least two games. Mubashshir Usmani, General Secretary Emirates Cricket Board was happy to announce this much-needed tournament in the light of the fact that the teams competing in the first round would hardly have warm-up games leading up to the tournament. “Emirates Cricket Board is very pleased to welcome Ireland, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea to the UAE and we are delighted to host the ‘DafaNews Summer T20 Bash’. This is a great opportunity for these participating teams to fine-tune their T20 skills as they approach their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup matches, and for our (UAE) team to gain experience from once again facing an ICC test-nation who will be highly motivated in putting their skills and experience on display. We look forward to a highly competitive series on home soil,” said Usmani in a press release by ECB. Tournament so far The tournament which started on October five has turned out to be an exciting affair with Sony Ten even broadcasting games involving UAE. 1st Match; UAE vs Namibia, October 05th In the first match, Namibia, who would be competing in Group A in the first round alongside Netherlands, Ireland and Sri Lanka, turned out to be too good for the hosts UAE. They won the match by 17 runs courtesy of a stellar bowling performance by Jan Nicolaas Frylinck, who picked up six wickets with his left-arm medium-fast to restrict the hosts to 142-9, thereby handing them a 17 run defeat. Check full scorecard here 2nd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 07th In the second game of the tournament, hosts UAE were once again on the receiving end, but this time at the hands of Ireland. Once again it was some brilliant bowling performance from Ireland which restricted the home side to only 123-7 in the allotted 20 overs. Curtis Campher picked three wickets while experienced Mark Adair and young leggie Benjamin White picked two wickets each. The chase then turned out to be a cakewalk for the Irish as Pual Stirling and Kevin O’Brien put up 90 for the first wicket in just 13 overs. Even as they fell and so did skipper Andrew Balbarnie in a space of 25 runs, which took 36 balls to complete and got people thinking that the match might stretch to the last over, but it wasn’t to be as Campher hit two fours in a row to finish the game in the 19th over itself. Check full scorecard here 3rd Match: UAE vs Ireland, October 08th It took matches, but UAE did come back eventually in the third game and beat much higher-ranked Ireland to salvage some pride of playing at home. The victory was even sweeter because it was UAE’s biggest margin of victory against a test playing nation. The Irish were bowled out for 109 in 18.4 overs chasing a total of 163. For UAE, right-arm leg break bowler, born in Chennai, India, Kartik Meiyappan was the hero of the game, picking four crucial wickets including those of well set Campher and George Delany. In batting, Chirag Suri and Basil Hameed scored important runs for the hosts. In fact, Suri scored his fourth T20I fifty, making 51 off 44. Check full scorecard here 4th Match: Scotland vs PNG, October 08th Playing their first game of the tournament, the Scottish team showed no mercy whatsoever in bashing Papua New Guinea by eight wickets with 14 balls remaining. It was a proper show of inter from the Scottish team which meant business even in its warm-up game against neighbours Ireland earlier this week, defeating them by five wickets. In this game, PNG scored 154 in their 20 overs courtesy of a fifty by skipper Assad Vala and some late charge by Sese Bau who scored 38 off 26 balls. Scotland, on the other hand, didn’t skip a beat. With fifty from George Munsey and an unbeaten 41 from Richie Berrington, they reached the target in the 18th over itself. Check full scorecard here In the remaining two days, three matches will be played including Scotland vs Namibia on October 9th, UAE vs Ireland and PNG vs Namibia on October 11.