Scotland Team News
Scotland produced the first upset of the tournament. They were around the 5.0 mark to beat a Bangladesh side eight places above them in the ICC rankings: they’re 14th, Bangladesh sixth.
It was a good lesson in how T20 cricket can often come down to just one player: all-rounder Chris Greaves hit 45 off 28 from number seven to make the game competitive.
And then with the ball, he made it more than competitive: he took 2-19 off three overs to win them the game.
So they have Greaves to thank for that famous win but must be worried about their batting other than him. Numbers two to six scored just 18 runs between them.
Scotland’s Likely XI
Munsey, Coetzer, Cross, Berrington, Macleod, Leask, Greaves, Watt, Davey, Sharif, Wheal.
Papua New Guinea
The first match was a rude awakening for PNG.
A score of 129 may have seemed like it could be competitive on a tough wicket.
That they got even that was almost purely down to an excellent 56 off 43 from captain Assad Vala, though there was also a good 37 off 26 from Charles Amini.
But Oman chased that without losing a wicket. We suspect there’s a huge gulf in class at least in of bowling between PONG and the other sides here.
But of course, we’ll have to wait and see how they perform in at least one more game before drawing too many conclusions.
Papua New Guinea’s Likely XI
Ura, Siaka, Vala, Amini, Bau, Vanua, Atai, Doriga, Ravu, Morea, Pokana.
Venue & conditions
We’re at Al Amerat for this one. So far, two matches have been played there as part of the qualifying tournament.
In the first, Papua New Guinea scored 129 and it wasn’t nearly enough with Oman chasing it without losing a wicket. In the second, Scotland’s 140 was six too many for Bangladesh.
So what can we interpret from those results? We still think chasing is the way to go here despite Bangladesh not pulling it off against Scotland.
You’d think 140-145 is a competitive score but like we say, both sides will probably want to chase. Check out our Oman Cricket Academy betting guide for more on this venue!
