Scotland vs Kenya

Scotland completed a dominant win over Kenya in its final ICC World Cricket League Championship match at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday (December 8) and finished 2nd in the overall league standings on 19 points from 14 matches. Kenya finished fifth in the final standings with 12 points after 14 games.

Kyle Coetzer’s captain’s knock of 121 runs from 130 deliveries carried Scotland to 266/8 in their allotted 50 overs. Chris Sole then tore through Kenya’s middle order, as Scotland bowled Kenya out for only 105 in 33.2 overs to win the match by 161 runs.

Coetzer was involved in a 5th wicket partnership of 87 runs with Craig Wallace, before he fell for a run-a-ball 49. Michael Leask played a quickfire cameo of 23 off 11 balls in the final overs to boost the total.

Dhiren Gondaria (38) was the only batsman to offer some resistance, but Kenya crawling from 44/3 after 10 overs to 64/7 after 20, found no momentum in their entire innings as wickets kept falling at either ends. Sole finished with 4/24, while Alasdair Evans picked up 2/18 with Safyaan Sharif also chipping away with 2/20.

Hong Kong vs Papua New Guinea

Anshuman Rath starred with his maiden List A century as Hong Kong defeated Papua New Guinea by 93 runs in their final ICC World Cricket League Championship match at the ICC Academy in Dubai.

Rath’s unbeaten 143 off 137 balls and captain, Babar Hayat’s 89 off 80 took Hong Kong up to a strong 323/4 in 50 overs. A gritty fifty from Kiplin Doriga and cameo innings from Alie Nao rescued PNG from a precarious 90/6, but the team was eventually bowled out for 230 in 42.2 overs.

John Reva (36 off 35 balls) and Nao (46 off 37) contributed valuable runs down the order but the asking rate was too high for PNG to launch a counter-attack as Doriga remained unbeaten on 89 off 90 balls, running out of partners. Ehsan Nawaz finished with 4/54, while Ehsan Khan and Nadeem Ahmed picked up two wickets apiece.

With this win, Hong Kong finished third on the table, with 18 points from 14 matches, while PNG was fourth with 16 points. Both teams have made it to the ICC World Cup 2019 Qualifiers, though