Malaysia T20I Tri-Nations Cup 2023 Points Table: Updated Standings after Papua New Guinea vs Hong Kong, Match 6
Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong were involved in the sixth and the final game of the Malaysia T20I Tri-Nations Cup 2023 on Sunday, September 24, at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur.
Papua New Guinea maintained their dominant run in the tournament in the last game of the series. They remained undefeated in the tournament and finished in first place on the points table. Papua New Guinea won four games and had a Net Run Rate of +1.480.
Malaysia finished in the second place with two wins and two losses. Both their losses came against Papua New Guinea. They accumulated four points and a Net Run Rate of +0.189.
Hong Kong couldn’t win a single game in this series and had a Net Run Rate of -1.974.
Papua New Guinea edges past Hong Kong in low-scoring nail-biter
In a low-scoring thriller, Papua New Guinea won the toss and chose to bowl. Hong Kong faced a challenging start to their innings, managing only 28 runs in the power play. By the end of the 11th over, half of their batters were back in the pavilion, and their total stood at just 49 runs.
The partnership of Nasrulla Rana and Ehsan Khan steadied the innings, lasting for 7.2 overs and adding 35 runs for the first wicket. Nasrulla was eventually dismissed for 17 runs off 25 deliveries in the 18th over. The rest of the batters managed to lead PNG to a total of 89 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.
Papua New Guinea lost their first wicket in the very first over of their innings. While the middle-order batters put up a decent fight, they reached the 50-run mark in the 9th over.
However, PNG found themselves in trouble when they lost their sixth wicket with the score at 76 in the 14th over. From there, the team's batting faltered, and they managed to score just one run by the end of the 16th over, resulting in the loss of nine wickets.
Nasrulla Rana was the star performer for Hong Kong, delivering a remarkable spell of six wickets for just 12 runs in four overs. Alei Nao played a cautious innings of 11 runs off 16 deliveries, guiding Papua New Guinea to a nail-biting one-wicket victory.