Barras lose to Scotland in warm-up fixture

PAPUA New Guinea (196 all out) began their campaign in Zimbabwe with a seven-wicket warm-uploss against Scotland (197/3) at the Bulawayo Athletic Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
Put into bat by Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer the Hebou-sponsored PNG Barramundis lost early wickets before talismanic skipper Assad Vala and Lega Siaka produced a fourth-wicket partnership that took the score to 68 by the 17th over before Siaka (19) was trapped leg before by Mark Watt.
Sese Bau shored the PNG innings with a gritty half century (53) and with Vala (39) looked to push the score to 200 but the skipper was dismissed and Bau fell soon after.
From there it was a procession of single figure scores by PNG’s lower order to be 175/9 by the 44th over.
Charles Amini Jr (16 not out) played aggressively but lost partner Alei Nou (8) for the Barras to be all out for196.
Scotland captain Coetzer (46 of 23 balls) showed he was not going to hang around and went after the target guns blazing.
Opening partner Matthew Cross was more sedate (101 not out) crafting a century which included four 4s and five 6s as he along with Craig Wallace (39 not out) guided the Scots to a comfortable victory.
Vala returned impressive figures of 2-23 off eight overs with his offspinners Kila (1-36) picked up the other wick.
The match was in many ways a mirror to PNG’s World Cricket League Championship campaign, which also began in defeat but ended in elation.
PNG ultimately qualified when it mattered and that is the hope for the rest of the tournament.