T20 World Cup results: West Indies beat Papua New Guinea by five wickets

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, Group C, Guyana

Papua New Guinea 136-8 (20 overs): Bowe 50 (43), Russell 2-19

West Indies 137-5 (19 overs): Chase 42* (27), Vala 2-28

West Indies win by 5 wickets

Co-hosts West Indies overcame a crisis to win by five wickets against Papua New Guinea in the opening match of the Men’s T20 World Cup in Guyana.

Needing 37 runs to win off the last 19 balls, the two-time champions did so with six balls to spare.

Roston Chase top-scored with a scoreless 42 points and partnered Andre Russell with 40 points to secure the win.

PNG lost 7-2 in the third innings after some strong batting from openers Tony Ula and Rega Siaka failed to bear fruit.

Opener and captain Asad Vala added 21 and CeCe Baugh added 50 off 43 balls but was run out by Alzarri Joseph as PNG finished with 98 for 6.

Wicketkeeper Kiplin Doriga added 27 runs to take the score to 136-8.

Russell and Joseph picked up two wickets each while Akeel Hosin, Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Mottier picked up one wicket each.

In reply, West Indies opener Johnson Charles was caught lbw by Alley Nao for a golden duck. Nao also managed to dismiss Windies wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran for a duck in the second over, but technology showed he would have been out if reviewed.

Pooran overcame an early crisis and forged a 53-run partnership with Brandon King before holing out for 27 runs.

Valla then dismissed King (34) and Scharfein Rutherford (2) as the Windies fell from 61-1 to 97-5.

However, the experienced duo of Chase and Russell led the team to victory and avoided an upset.

Russell finished the 17th over with a long hop for a six before Chase misfielded the next ball for a four to take the required run with just 13 balls to go.

Of the two co-hosts of the T20 World Cup, the West Indies, playing in their debut against the USA, will almost certainly have the best chance of winning the tournament for their country.

The Caribbean have traditionally been a force to be reckoned with in world cricket but failed to even qualify for the 50-over World Cup in India last year, while the West Indies have a lot to prove.

Just 48 hours before their World Cup opener against PNG, ranked 20th in the world, in Guyana, the Windies beat Australia in their final warm-up match, scoring 257 runs and emerging as the team to watch for many.

They set an early tone for a sure home victory with two wickets in 13 balls, but allowed their Associate Member State opponents to get back into the match, posting a score that, while by no means unchallenging, was at least competitive.

Some sloppy fielding and not much proactive pitching gave PNG hope, and that hope was made clear when a Joseph no-ball at the end of the innings gave them three extra runs.

The loss of opener Charles in the second over put the Windies to the test and, had PNG reviewed with more confidence, they would have been 2 for 8 later in that over.

The combination of Powell and King, and later Chase and Russell, ultimately saw the Windies secure a win, but this was one of the easier matches in West Indies’ Group C fixtures and they will need to work harder in the second half of the season.

The West Indies should, on paper, beat Uganda easily, as they did against Papua New Guinea, but victories against New Zealand and Afghanistan are far from assured.

Ahead of the toss, Windies captain Rovman Powell said the country was “expected” to do well, but admitted after the match that the team “was not at its best”, adding that they were “at 60 per cent strength”.

They will be hoping to become the first team to win a T20 World Cup on their own soil, but further performances like the low-key win over Papua New Guinea mean a place in the Super Eights is by no means a sure thing.

West Indies batting all-rounder Roston Chase“I’m very happy. It’s always good to start a tournament with a win and I’m happy we were able to do it for the team.”

“PNG are not an A-grade team but they are here and we are not underestimating anyone. We treated them like India and Australia but maybe we lacked a bit of concentration early on.”

Papua New Guinea captain Asad Vala: “The scores were close but I think we made some mistakes at the end. We should have been able to get 10-15 more runs. Considering the wickets we lost earlier, I’m really happy with the 136 we got.”

“We are trying to play our best cricket against the best players. The effort has been really good and we need to continue that effort in the match against Sri Lanka.”