Coming into this match, both sides had a simple equation. Papua New Guinea needed to win and hope Namibia lose in order to go straight to to the World Twenty20. The USA needed to win and hope Hong Kong lose in order to take the fourth spot in the play-off stage.

In the end neither got what they wanted as Hong Kong won to send the USA out despite their win in this match.

Batting first after losing the toss, the USA got their best start of the tournament as they reached 65 by the end of the eighth over, when Fahad Babar chipped the ball to Assad Vala at cover for 30.

Runs started to dry up for the Americans as only 14 had been added when Mahuru Dai had Akeem Dodson out lbw three overs later. Runs continued to be hard to come by until the fall of the fourth wicket when Nicholas Standford came out to bat, surprisingly pushed down the order despite his 40 yesterday.

He scored 40 again today, but in even quicker fashion as his runs came in just 17 balls, helping his team post a competitive total of 147-8 from their 20 overs.

Papua New Guinea would have hoped to chase that target down, but the USA came out playing out of their skins. Lively in the field and bowling well, they had PNG 21-3 in the third over with Tony Ura, Lega Siaka and Assad Vala the men out. Naseer Jamali bowled his four overs straight up, taking 1-19.

The PNG side never really recovered from that start, and whilst there was the occasional awkward partnership, the USA kept on top of the game throughout the innings. They started to get a bit sloppy in the field, news no doubt filtering through about Hong Kong's win over Namibia, towards the end, but still kept their opponents to 129-9 to win by 18 runs.


The result, combined with Hong Kong's win over Namibia, meant that Papua New Guinea - who would have topped the group with a win - had to settle for fourth place in the group. They will play the loser of Tuesday's Hong Kong v Afghanistan match in a qualification play-off on Thursday.