Papua New Guinea were officially knocked out of the men’s T20 World Cup as Afghanistan sealed their Super Eight spot with a commanding seven wicket win in Trinidad on Thursday (local time). Kiplin Doriga led PNG’s fightback after being reduced to 30 for 5 inside the powerplay with a spirited 32-ball 27 but couldn’t prevent his side from crashing to 95 all out with a ball unused. Afghanistan’s win was set up by the fast bowlers, aided by PNG’s poor running between the wickets and iced by Gulbadin Naib’s unbeaten 49.
Being put into bat after losing the toss, PNG batters’ new-ball woes continued as Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq extracted prodigious swing as Lega Siaka and Sese Bau nicked behind. Tony Ura and Hiri Hiri followed suit off Naveen-ul-Haq losing their stumps to in-swinging deliveries. Chad Soper resisted for 26 deliveries as Doriga led PNG’s brief recovery sweeping the spinners and rotating the strike.
Although it did not help that as many as four batters were run out; two in reckless fashion: Vala was inside the crease when wicket-keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s direct hit to the bowler’s end found him short with his bat in the air. Later in the 13th over, Norman Vanua would have made his ground only for his bat to be stuck in the turf inches from the popping crease. Eventually, PNG got to 95, an unlikely total at 50 for 7 when Vanua was run out, had it not been for a 38-run partnership between Doriga and Alei Nao (13).
Remarkably, for all their .
