West Indies scrapped to a nervy five-wicket win over Papua New Guinea as the Twenty20 World Cup of cricket held its first match in the Caribbean on Sunday.
PNG’s spinners restrained West Indies’ power hitters but it wasn’t enough as the tournament co-hosts reached a victory target of 137-5 with an over to spare.
Sese Bau had earlier become only the second PNG batter to score a half century at a T20 World Cup. His 50-run knock lifted the Pacific nation’s team to 136-8 from 20 overs after West Indies captain Rovman Powell won the toss and elected to field on a spin-friendly wicket.
“Credit has to be given to PNG, their plans were simple and they played good cricket,” Powell said.
PNG didn’t allow West Indies to run away with the chase and had the hosts worried at 97-5 in 16 overs. Roston Chase made an unbeaten 42 off 27 balls and carried the team home.
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