Papua New Guinea Chase Down 305 to Beat Denmark by 4 Wickets — Four Fifties Answer Lucky Ali's 114 Not Out

Three days after a 172-run defeat to Jersey, Papua New Guinea chose to field at Ruaraka and watched Denmark make 304 for 6. Lucky Ali came in at the fall of the first wicket in the 14th over and was still there at the end, 114 not out off 111 balls, with Hamid Shah's 73 off 82 alongside him in a second-wicket stand of 83. Denmark, who had beaten Kuwait by 102 runs the previous day, had every reason to think it was enough.

It was not, because Papua New Guinea built their reply the way a 50-over chase is meant to be built. Sese Bau went early, then Tony Ura (70) and Lega Siaka (83) added 123 for the second wicket, Patrick Nou (54) and Assad Vala (61 not out) added 66 for the fourth, and when Abdullah Mahmood took two wickets in four balls to leave them 278 for 6 needing 27 off 25, Vala and Kabua Morea found 29 in 20 balls. Papua New Guinea won by 4 wickets with 5 balls remaining.

Surya Anand had Bau caught behind by Sebastian Heath in the third over with 21 on the board, and the required rate was already above six. Ura and Siaka did not let it climb. Ura's 70 off 61 balls had six fours and two sixes; Siaka's 83 off 81 had nine fours and one six. Their 123 came in 19 overs, which kept Papua New Guinea level with the ask rather than chasing it. Mahmood took both, Ura caught by Musa Shaheen at 144 in the 22nd over and Siaka caught by Surya Anand at 191 in the 30th, and at that point PNG needed 114 from 20.2 overs with seven wickets left.

Nou and Vala, the captain, added 66 for the fourth wicket. Nou's 54 off 60 was built on eight fours and ended when Surya Anand had him caught by Mahmood at 257 in the 41st over. Dauncey Tom made 10 before Mahmood trapped him lbw at 278 in the 46th, and three balls later Alei Nao was caught and bowled by the same man for 0. That was 278 for 6, 27 needed from 25 balls, and the match was open. Vala had already bowled eight overs for 41; now he finished unbeaten on 61 off 56 with seven fours and a six, and Morea hit a four and a six in 14 not out off 11. The last 29 runs took 20 balls. Denmark's bowlers gave away only six extras to PNG's 15, which in a four-wicket finish is a margin worth noting.

Denmark's innings had the shape of a winning one. Musa Shaheen's 31 off 46 and Shah's 73 off 82, with six fours and three sixes, brought 68 for the first wicket before Semo Kamea had Shaheen caught by John Kariko in the 14th over. Shah and Ali then added 83, Shah run out by Vala and Ura at 151 in the 31st over. Ali kept going, eight fours and three sixes in a 114 not out that lasted 111 balls, and with Saif Ahmad (22 off 22) and Taranjit Bharaj (26 off 19) around him, Denmark took 75 off the last 7.5 overs from 229 for 4. Kamea's three wickets cost 64, but no one else got more than one.

The difficulty was with the ball. Mahmood was excellent, 10-1-42-4, with the two set batters and then two in four balls at the end; Surya Anand's 2 for 47 brought the other two wickets. Between them they bowled 20 overs for 89 and six wickets. The other five bowlers, Shakeel Zeb, Lucky Ali, Saud Munir, Saif Ahmad and Hamid Shah, sent down 29.1 overs for 214 runs without a wicket, Saif's nine going for 60. On a day when 304 was a competitive score, Denmark needed a third bowler to take one of the four PNG batters who made fifties, and did not find one. It is a fair reflection that a side can bat as well as Denmark did here and still lose.

The chase was controlled for 45 overs, and then it was not. Mahmood's lbw against Tom with the second ball of the 46th over and his caught-and-bowled against Nao three balls later took PNG from 278 for 4 to 278 for 6, and Denmark, for the first time since the second-wicket stand, had the match in their hands: two wickets in four balls, 27 runs needed from 25, and a bowler in the middle of the spell of his day. What decided it was that one of the two batters was not new. Vala had been there since 191 for 3 in the 30th over, and he and Morea took the 29 runs in 20 balls. Every chase has one over in which it could be lost; this one came in the 46th, and the captain was the right man to be standing at the non-striker's end when it did. The earlier foundation mattered just as much: without the 123 that Ura and Siaka put on from 21 for 1, the finish would have needed far more than 27.

Ura's 70 off 61 balls, with six fours and two sixes, was the innings that set the rate PNG kept for the rest of the day. He came together with Siaka at 21 for 1 in the third over and left at 144 in the 22nd, caught by Musa Shaheen off Mahmood, and by then the chase of 305 had been reduced to something the middle order could manage at a run a ball. He had also been involved in the run out of Shah, with Vala, that ended Denmark's second-wicket stand at 151. Siaka made more runs and Vala finished it, but the award went to the man who made the chase look possible first.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Papua New Guinea have gone from a 172-run defeat to Jersey on October 22 to 307 for 6 chasing in the space of three days, with four batters past fifty and a captain who bowled eight overs and then batted through the finish. The batting is clearly there; the question is whether the attack, which conceded 304 with only Kamea taking more than one wicket, can hold a strong side under 280. For Denmark, Lucky Ali's unbeaten hundred and Hamid Shah's 73 followed the 102-run win over Kuwait the day before, so the batting is in form. The bowling beyond Mahmood and Surya Anand is where the next match will be decided.