Papua New Guinea 311 (Vala 144*, B Scholtz 5-105) and 189 (Morea 61, B Scholtz 6-65) beat Namibia 146 (Burger 52*, Siaka 3-16, Vanua 3-39) and 155 (Kotze 36, Siaka 4-38) by 199 runs
Scorecard
File photo: Assad Vala struck another century for Papua New Guinea to lead them to a win in their first I-Cup match on home soil © IDI/Getty
Stand-in captain Assad Vala scored an unbeaten 144 in the first innings to set up Papua New Guinea’s 199-run win over Namibia at Port Moresby in PNG’s first Intercontinental Cup match on home soil. It is PNG’s second win in the competition, moving them past Scotland and Hong Kong into fourth place with 40 points from four games and putting them just six points behind Netherlands for third.
Vala, who took over leadership duties for the injured Jack Vare, elected to bat first at the toss and scored his second century in as many I-Cup matches for Papua New Guinea after making 120 in January against Ireland. It set up PNG’s first innings total of 311 and Namibia struggled in reply after medium pacer Norman Vanua took 3 for 39 to reduce the visitors to 52 for 6.
Captain Sarel Burger produced an unbeaten half-century to keep Vanua at bay and added 52 for the eighth wicket with JJ Smit. Top order batsman and part-time bowler Lega Siaka came on to break the stand, removing Smit lbw for his first career first-class wicket, then finished off the tail to hold Namibia to 149, giving first innings points to PNG with a lead of 162.
PNG elected not to enforce the follow-on and Vani Morea opened their second dig with a brisk 61 off 86 balls. Left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz kept Namibia in the match by ripping through PNG’s middle order to take 6 for 65, following up his five-for in the first innings to finish with 11 for 170 in the match, his second career 10-wicket match haul in first-class cricket. His effort helped keep the hosts to 189 in their second dig, setting up a target of 355 for Namibia.
As they had done in the first innings, Vanua and Siaka did most of the damage to disrupt any hope of an unlikely win for Namibia. Vanua ripped out Namibia’s top three to make it 14 for 4 inside of five overs. Siaka took two more before the close of play on day three to leave Namibia at 112 for 8 and then came back to take the final two wickets on the final morning to finish with 4 for 38 and a match haul of 7 for 54.
The two sides will have an off day on Thursday before commencing two WCL Championship matches on October 21 and 23. PNG currently sit in fourth place with eight points from six games while Namibia are tied with UAE for last place with two points. A series sweep for PNG would draw them level with Netherlands, who currently sit in first place with 12 points from eight games.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo