Skipper, Khurram Khan led from the front with a century as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recorded a comprehensive 150-run victory over Papua New Guinea (PNG) on the first day of the Super Six stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Qualifiers at Hagley Oval on Sunday.
A captain’s knock from Khurram (138) sealed victory for UAE and helped them get top spot by virtue of Net Run Rate (NRR) in the Super Six table after both teams had finished with four points each.
After being sent in to bat, UAE lost both openers within four overs, before Khan scored at almost a run a ball to help his side post a competitive total of 280.
Khan found the boundary 17 times and struck two sixes in his 145-ball innings, and is now leads the tournament with 413 runs. Vikrant Shetty (35) and Swapnil Patil (29) also contributed with the bat for UAE.
Pace bowler Willie Gavera (three for 39) got the skipper’s wicket in the 44th over and also took two more wickets in the penultimate over.
PNG never recovered from a shaky start, and were reduced to 45 for 5 from 11.1 overs.
Charles Amini top-scored for PNG with 49, but Amjad Javed’s four for 26 saw PNG dismissed for 130 in 28.3 overs.
Khurram who was named Man-of -the-Match was thrilled that his team secured victory in such an important match.
“That was a very important two points because PNG came into the Super Six stage with four points and most of the other teams came with two points. This stage of the competition you just have to beat every team, and we really respect PNG, they are an awesome team and have been doing very well but our guys did a wonderful job,” said Khan.
In other Super Six matches played on Sunday, Kenya‘s Lameck Onyango starred with a four-wicket haul to lead his side to victory over Hong Kong, while rain stopped play in the Scotland-Namibia fixture before a result could be achieved.
Source : The Cricket Country
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