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We now come to the end of our coverage of this contest. We'll be back with more of the same later tomorrow - Namibia will take on Oman in technically the second game of the day at Barbados, and we'll then have a blockbuster clash between Sri Lanka and South Africa at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. Join us right here on Sportskeeda for our coverage of them, and a lot more! This is Rajarshi Das, signing off on behalf of Pradeep Somasekhar. Good night - see you tomorrow!
This sure might be a tournament for the associate nations. Papua New Guinea almost pulled off the unthinkable - maybe a few more on the board would have made things a lot more interesting. They have Uganda - another emerging force from Africa coming up next - the way they went about today, PNG sure might be favourites for that one! The West Indies still have Afghanistan and New Zealand to play in the group stage - they won't be too pleased with how they got things done today. They play Uganda next as well, and the Men in Maroon will want to be a lot more clinical in all departments.
Rovman Powell (West Indies captain): Credit has to be given to PNG, their plans were simple, and they play good cricket. It's important to get the two points, and to start well, and that's what we did. It was 10 or 15 too much (PNG's total), that's something we're looking to tighten up. When PNG came under pressure, their batters in the middle overs showed intent. Credit has to be given to them - they played smartly. For the past year since I've turned captain, 70-80 percent of the team are playing together. Something we've enjoyed doing, hopefully we can show that in the World Cup. Starting from the bowling effort, he (Chase) bowled really well, and then coming in the end, to hold his composure and come out with that innings is very pleasing for us. We can be better in all three departments, we've seen the team play very good cricket. We weren't quite up to the straps today, 70 percent there, just to go down and see what we did well today. Hopefully we can correct that on the second game.
Assad Vala (Papua New Guinea captain): It was a competitive score, we thought another 10-15 runs would've done good for us, but we lost too many wickets towards the end and lost our way. We fought hard, we got key wickets but couldn't get towards the end, but overall happy with the effort from the boys. It's an opportunity and look forward to playing against big players, really good effort and take this energy in the next game against Uganda. Simmons has been really helpful with the conditions, really calm and the way he speaks to the boys.
Roston Chase is the Player of the Match! Here's what he has to say: Very pleased, obviously it's good to start with a win in the tournament, happy to take the team home. It was always hard for the batters coming in, I have myself some time and backed my skills. Watched PNG batters as they took the time and then they played their shots. Putting in a lot of hard work, we had a camp in Antigua and has helped. We don't want to take any team lightly, they are here for a reason. We started off a bit slow, we had a chance at the half-way stage and won the game.
Match summary:
West Indies win by 5 wickets with 6 balls to spare
Roston Chase 42*(27) | Andre Russell 2/19 (4) Sese Bau 50 (43) | Assad Vala 2/28 (4)
They sure did put up a really commendable fight - did Papua New Guinea, but the hosts had way too much batting firepower to seal this contest. The Papua New Guinea spinners made the most of the slow deck in those middle overs - it seemed like boundary-hitting was nearly impossible at one point with the likes of John Kariko, Assad Vala and Charles Amini keeping a check on the runs, but once Andre Russell was in, the tide turned towards the hosts for good.
The West Indies lost Johnson Charles early on, but Brandon King pierced the gaps in the in-field quite often in the powerplay, and helped the West Indies get going. Nicholas Pooran looked to attack, wasn't quite timing it well enough. That was until he came across Sese Bau's off-breaks - Pooran helped the West Indies move past fifty in a trice - taking 17 out of the 18 in the final over of the powerplay.
It was after the powerplay that the screws tightened on the West Indies - John Kariko contained Pooran from his end - Pooran tried to go after him and picked out long on. Brandon King followed soon after, holing out off Assad Vala trying to hit into the wind towards mid wicket. The runs began drying up as Vala, Kariko, Amini and Chad Soper kept a tight line and length, and the required rate inched towards nine.
A couple of sharp catches from Kiplin Doriga further put Papua New Guinea in front. But the West Indies still had Andre Russell to come, and they still had Roston Chase out there. The six from Russell off the last ball of the 17th eased the pressure off the hosts. Chase then hit 14 off the 18 next over, bringing the equation close to a run-a-ball with two overs to go, and the West Indies were home and dry with one ball to go to the final over. Captains' quotes coming up in a bit...
Well, the hosts sure had a scare or two in those middle overs, but trust that man with the blonde spike across his head to take control of proceedings. Andre Russell kicked the doors open for the West Indies, and they get past the line.... just about!
19
overs
137/5score
2
1
4
4
1
1
runs
Andre Russell*
15(9)
Roston Chase
42(27)
Kabua Morea
0/30
18.6 Kabua Morea to Andre Russell, WEST INDIES HOLD ON TO THEIR NERVE! What a game this turned out to be. PNG almost made a match out of this, credit to them to take this game deep but West Indies prevail in time. Full on the leg-stump. Russell whacked it to long-on for one and seals the game.
18.5 Kabua Morea to Roston Chase, yorker length in the channel. Chase opens the face of the blade, squeezes it to short third-man for one. Scores are level!