A third wicket stand of 108 between captain Nitish Kumar (82) and Nikhil Dutta (38) helped Canada Under-19’s post 231/9 (50 ov) against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in a warm-up game in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on Wednesday. The total that proved sufficient on the day as Canada’s opening bowlers followed with major inroads into the early PNG batting. PNG tumbled to 14/4 in the seventh over, but battled away to reach 159/9 (50 ov). Canada won by 72 runs.
Canada’s third wicket stand involved the two players with Senior team experience: Nitish Kumar and Nikhil Dutta. Nitish Kumar hit 12 boundaries in his 82 runs made from 68 balls. Nikhil Dutta followed his 40 against the young Kiwis in the first warm-up game with a useful knock of 38 against PNG. . Several players made a few runs as they get used to local conditions. Openers Sudeepta Aurka (17) and Stephan Joseph (26) put on 31 in 11 overs, Arman Kapoor made 17 after Kumar was out, and Keenan Tinto chipped in with 20* in the later overs. Left-arm pacer Nosaina Pokaria took 3/27 for PNG.
Keenan Tinto then took three early wickets. His opening spell ended with 3 wickets for eight runs from five overs. His final figures were 3/17 from seven overs. This followed Keenan Tinto’s useful opening spell of 0/9 from five overs against New Zealand. Abraash Khan opened with 1/17 from four overs.
Left-arm spinner Farhan Malik bowled Raho Sam for 14, to leave PNG on 40/5. Nikhil Dutta’s off-spin then captured the wickets of PNG captain Dogodo Bau (23) and Anthony Vare (12) to put PNG on 75/7 in the twentyfifth over. Tom Willie and Allan Joseph produced an eighth wicket stand of 74 before Joseph was run out for 29. Dutta secured his third wicket of the innings when Nosaina Pokaria was stumped by Yug Rao. Tom Willie was 45 not out when the PNG innings closed on 159/9.
Pre-tournament reports had indicated eight of the PNG squad had been playing in the Gold Coast League in Australia. So for a young Canadian side to move from indoor cricket in the Arctic vortex zone of Toronto and win a warm-up game in less than a week should boost the team’s confidence for the starting game against Zimbabwe in this 2014 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup.
The opening batsmen made a bit of a start in today’s game, and will hope to improve in future games. The opening bowlers produced the kind of immediate success that, if repeated, and supported by the rest of the bowlers, the fielders and the batting could bring one or two wins against Zimbabwe, South Africa and the West Indies. Something captain Nitish Kumar hoped to see happen before the squad flew to Abu Dhabi last week. (EN)
Scorecard