It was almost more than 8 years ago when USA and Papua New Guinea (PNG) met in a 50-overs match in ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 3 match at Wong Nai Chung Gap ground in Hong Kong. On that day, a hapless USA were bowled out for only 44 runs on board, which PNG chased down in 6 overs.
Cut to 2019 and the two countries came across each other again in the final edition of an WCL event in Division 2 in Windhoek, and this time around, USA blew the wind out of PNG in quite a dramatic fashion. Not only did the USA bowlers bowl out PNG for a paltry 127 runs on board, the openers rubbed more salt into the wounds as they remained unbeaten to hand PNG a 10-wicket loss and chased down the target within 20 overs.
Ali Khan continued his ominous form in the tournament, as he picked up the first three wickets to fall for PNG, and took his overall tally to 12 wickets in 3 games so far in the tournament. PNG never could really recover from the early jolts as Lega Siaka (32) and Kipling Doriga (30) were the only players to offer some bit of resistance but it was Bronx-born Karima Gore, who shook the middle and late-order batting line-up with a 4-wicket haul to his name.
USA opener’s Monank Patel and Xavier Marshall wasted no time at the start of their chase as they reached 42 without loss in the first 7 overs before the lunch break. Upon resumption, the duo carried the same tempo as they didn’t allow any of PNG bowlers to have any effect on them as they scored freely to reach their half-centuries when the team total reached around 108-110. It was mere formality after that as they finished the chase in rapid time within the 20 overs to register a huge 10-wicket margin win and an equally big boost to their net run-rate, should it come into contention at any point of time for determining the top 4 at the end of the group stages.
At the moment, USA cricket are looking pretty well to be a prime contender for one of the 4 ODI spots on offer.
Brief Scores:
Papua New Guinea 127 all out in 39.3 overs (Lega Siaka 32, Kipling Doriga 30, Chad Soper 18, Karima Gore 4/23, Ali Khan 3/41, Timil Patel 2/26) lost to USA 128 for no loss in 19.2 overs (Monank Patel 70 n.o, Xavier Marshall 54 n.o) by 10 wickets
