ABOUT THE MATCH
Papua New Guinea and Bermuda are both looking to reach the ICC T20 World Cup for the first time – though Bermuda has played at the 50-over tournament, of course. Their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier takes place at the ICC Academy Ground, Dubai, on October 19.
Papua New Guinea beat Vanuatu and the Philippines to qualify for this tournament, and then go into this on the back of winning the Pacific Games. They are on a winless streak in ODI cricket, however their own recent matches against teams from outside the EAP region.
Bermuda, meanwhile, upset the USA to reach this tournament. Unlike Papua New Guinea, they did win one of their warm-up matches – beating Nigeria before losing to Hong Kong most recently.
TOSS PREDICTION
A good batting wicket could demand to bat first. Both teams won one toss and lost the other in the warm-up matches, but Bermuda was the team to take better advantage of the former and will look to do so again.
PITCH AND CONDITIONS
Temperatures will already be up in the 30s by the time this game starts. Conditions are set to be hot, dry and sunny.
The Dubai pitch is generally perfect for batting – hard and dry. If it offers anything to the bowlers, it will be the spinners later on.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Papua New Guinea
Tony Ura, Norman Vanua, Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini, Sese Bau, Lega Siaka, Hiri Hiri, Damien Ravu, Kiplin Doriga (wk), Jason Kila, Nosaina Pokana
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Bermuda
Onias Bascombe, Terryn Fray (c), Deunte Darrell, Kamau Leverock, Allan Douglas, Delray Rawlins, Dion Stovell, Malachi Jones, Derrick Brangman, Rodney Trott, Sinclair Smith (wk)
MATCH PREVIEW
Papua New Guinea
- Chad Soper played in the Pacific Games final but has not been utilized in the warm-up matches, which suggests he will not play this game.
- Jason Kila may be the man to replace him, judging from the bowlers’ workloads during the two warm-up matches.
- In T20 international cricket, Papua New Guinea is in excellent form though they have not been tested beyond the East Asian Pacific region and lost both warm-up matches for this tournament.
- Nevertheless, they won every game at the Pacific Games Norman Vanua’s 5-17 bowling them to victory against Vanuatu in the final.
Bermuda
- Dion Stovell only returned to action in the final match of the ICC Americas Qualifying tournament but he has been named as captain of the Bermuda side.
- The team will likely be similar to that match, with the majority of the players who helped Bermuda reach this tournament selected again.
- Justin Pitcher is absent, however. Delray Rawlins is likely to come into the team though, having not played in the final.
- Bermuda twice beat the United States as they qualified for this tournament alongside Canada from the ICC Americas Qualifier.
- As the host nation, Bermuda won both games against the USA and both against the Cayman Islands.
- In their final game against the latter, Allan Douglas was their star man he smashed 47 from 28 balls in a six-wicket win, to follow up his 5-18 in the Cayman Islands’ innings.
PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:
Both teams have enjoyed good form at the regional level, but their experience against teams from outside their own bubble is limited. Nevertheless, Papua New Guinea’s white-ball reputation is the greater of the two and they can open this qualifier with a win.
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