Kent’s ton bright spot in campaign

A CAPTAIN’S knock of 105 not out by Chris Kent saw the Papua New Guinea Garamuts compile 239-5 against Afghanistan in the Under-19 Cricket World Cup 9th place play-off quarter-final yesterday.
Last Thursday, PNG lost to India by 107 runs in the last match of the group stage.
Kent’s ton capped off a consistent tournament for the 19-year-old who is also a permanent member of the senior PNG XI. The Brisbane-based player had scored 27 (India), 39 (West Indies) and 24 (Zimbabwe) for an aggregate of 195 runs from four matches at an average of 65.
Nigel Boge, batting at No.7, laid claim to being the Garamuts’ best lower order batsman hitting 55 off 56 balls as he helped Kent take PNG to their highest score of the tournament in Queensland.
Despite having a bigger total to defend the Garamuts attack could not pull trigger on the Afghans (244-6) who went on to win by four wickets.
Raymond Haoda, 2-52 off 9 overs, and Chad Sopper, 0-64 off 10 overs, found the Afghans adapt to pace bowling and could not apply pressure to turn the match.
Leg-spinner Charles Amini Jr gave the opposition batsmen fits claiming 2-29 off 8 overs, but his heroics were too little too late.
Medium-pacer Kabua Morea’s 1-36 off 10 overs was the other bowling performance of note.
Mohibullah Paak struck an unbeaten 58 while just about every Afghan batsman got a start to contribute to the successful run chase.
Meanwhile, in the quarter-finals played yesterday Australia (5-172) beat Bangladesh (171) by five wickets and South Africa (244) thrashed England (141) by 103 runs.