It was not a perfect West Indies victory but PNG did make things happen, and at times more than some of them hoped for and many more than some ever expected of them
Was it a scare? Or was it just a small reality check that the teams in this tournament are not just pushovers? The most pleasing thing about this game is that there was fight. Fight from West Indies and Papua New Guinea. (Full Coverage|As It Happened)
Rostan Chase’s unbeaten 42 - with more than half coming in boundaries is just what the doctor had ordered on a gloomy yet glorious day in Guyana.
Chasing just a paltry score of 137, Rovman Powell’s men had a nightmare-ish start losing their aggressive opener Johnson Charles for a duck. However, luck had its say as Nicholas Pooran survived an LBW decision before the rain started to pour down.
After a small delay, the players returned as Brandon King and Pooran slowly started to change gears. There were a few humps on the victory highway as they lost Pooran, King, skipper Powell, Rutherford under hundred with fours overs left.
It was Chase and Andre Russell who saw a launchpad to take them home with an over to spare and survived a major blow that could have been heartache for a while.
Earlier on, the Papua New Guinea batters tried to take the on the explosion on a slow surface with West Indies using a lot of spin early on. Nevertheless, no one looked set for a big innings but a late resilient knock from Sese Bau and a cameo from Kiplin Doriga took PNG to a respectable total.
It was not a perfect West Indies victory but PNG did make things happen, and at times more than some of them hoped for and many more than some ever expected of them.