Papua New Guinea’s tour of Singapore was always going to be
a tightly contested affair. There are just 2 Ratings Points (yeah, I don’t know
either) between the two teams who are 20th and 19th respectively
in the T20I rankings. This has been reflected in the results of the two matches
carried out thus far with the series resting at one a piece – despite the
relative dominance of the Singaporean players.
Singapore took the opening game yesterday thanks to Akshay
Puri helping limit PNG to just 150 – 18 runs short of the target. Puri got the
best figures of 3-26 but was ably supported by Vinoth Baskaran who has got a
brace in both games to lead the way in terms of wickets taken.
Today’s game was more of a batter friendly occasion –
evident in the fact that 409 runs were shared between the two sides. Even
though Surendran Chandramohan scored his maiden international century and
Singapore reached their second highest ever T20 score, Papua New Guinea still
managed to chase it down with 2 balls remaining. Oddly enough, the successful chase
also marked Papua New Guinea’s second highest ever T20I score – but was their
highest in a chase. Due to the fact that Chandramohan made a paltry 2 runs in
the first match, it is his teammate Arjun Mutreja who leads out the run scorers
courtesy of 77 yesterday and 36 today.
The series continues on Tuesday, concluding on Wednesday.
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