Papua New Guinea beat Hong Kong in three-day match

CricketEurope
Andrew Nixon
13 November 2014

Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong have ended their series of matches in Australia with PNG winning the concluding three-day match today in Townsville.
With no experience of matches of this length in the Papua New Guinea side, with the exception of England wicket-keeper Geraint Jones, few would have expected them to have done as well as they did in their first innings. Openers Lega Siaka and Tony Ura put on 88 before Ura was out for 58.
Siaka went on to score 51 before getting out, before Assad Vala and Vani Morea put on 164 for the third wicket. Morea was that third wicket, getting out for 90. Vala was next out, just short of his century on 98. Geraint Jones failed with the bat, only scoring four, but Kila Pala scored 57 before the close of play.
Closing on 411-6, Papua New Guinea continued batting on the second morning. Captain Chris Amini declared once he'd brought up his 50 with the PNG total on 469-7.
Hong Kong's reply started slowly, with openers Jamie Atkinson and Waqs Barkat both out cheaply. Anshuman Rath, who turned 17 just last week, was their top scorer with 72 before he was the fifth man out with the score on 120. Kinchit Shah and Babar Hayat were the only other batsmen to go past 15 as Hong Kong were bowled out for 205.
Papua New Guinea opted not to enforce the follow-on and batted again. They were unable to repeat their first innings performance though, and had lost four wickets by the close of the second day, only scoring 58.
Things didn't go to plan at the resumption on the third morning either, as Papua New Guinea collapsed to 69-8. Assad Vala scored 40 from just 13 balls to help them get to 114-8 before their second declaration set Hong Kong a challenging target of 379.
Anshuman Rath and Aizaz Khan opened for Hong Kong in their run chase, but that didn't stop both openers again being dismissed cheaply. Jamie Atkinson, who has got County Championship experience, was able to score 63, but Hong Kong were unable to bat out the day for the draw.
Norman Vanua took 5-36 as Hong Kong were bowled out for 245, losing by 133 runs. Hong Kong will now prepare for their tour of Sri Lanka where they will take on Nepal in a T20I series and a one-day match before two three-day matches against local sides. Papua New Guinea's next action will be the East Asia Pacific T20 championship.
Papua New Guinea beat Hong Kong by 133 runs
Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville, 11-13 November
Papua New Guinea 469-7d (104 overs, A Vala 98, V Morea 90, T Ura 58, Nadeem Ahmed 4-114)
Hong Kong 205 (67.5 overs, Anshuman Rath 72, K Shah 38*, CJ Amini 3-34)
Papua New Guinea 114-8d (23 overs, A Vala 40*, Haseeb Amjad 3-35, Nadeem Ahmed 3-38)
Hong Kong 245 (71.5 overs, J Atkinson 63, Waqas Barkat 39, K Shah 36, N Vanua 5-36)