The 3000th ODI in 2010 was between England and Australia at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. It was accompanied by fanfare from the ICC, with the then chief executive Haroon Lorgat issuing a statement celebrating the fact and looking forward to an ever-strengthening future for the format.

The 4000th ODI was at the Old Hararians ground in Harare, which only hosted its first ODI in this same tournament 11 days ago. There was no real fanfare, with the ICC only giving it passing mention, perhaps not wanting to draw attention to the fact that their nonsensical rules on status meant this ninth place play-off was an ODI rather than the seventh place play-off game between Nepal and the Netherlands being played at the same time.

Papua New Guinea captain Asad Vala won the toss and chose to have his team bat first. Opening the batting with Tony Ura, the two put on 68 for the opening wicket before the skipper fell for 21. An over later they were 72-3 with Ura out for 49, the top score of their innings.

Chad Soper and Mahuru Dai put on 59 for the fifth wicket before they fell in quick succession for 39 and 35 respectively. The last five wickets contributed 32 as Papua New Guinea went from 168-4 to 200 all out, Kinchit Shah taking four of the last six wickets to finish with 4-10 in 3.2 overs.

In Hong Kong's reply, Anshuman Rath and Babar Hayat put on 53 for the second wicket, scoring 24 and 37 respectively, but once they were out, both from the bowling of Charles Amini, there wasn't much else worth commenting on for the Hong Kong innings.

They were bowled out for 142 in the end after being 81-2 in the 11th over. Norman Vanua and Charles Amini both took four wickets in Papua New Guinea's 58 run win.

The question for both teams now will no doubt be "what next?". Both will be relegated to Division Two of the World Cricket League according to a recent ICC media release, but the long term future of the whole WCL is in some doubt with ICC officials saying that all pathways to World Cups are under review.

In the more immediate future, Hong Kong have an Asia Cup qualifier in India in September, whilst Papua New Guinea have a regional qualifier for the World T20 later this year.

Hong Kong, no doubt going home wondering how things would have been different with Mark Chapman and Jamie Atkinson in the side, were within one win of the Super Six stage and have their first ODI win over a full member under their belts. With the Asian Cricket Council returning to its former status as the top regional body, they have a good chance of following the Netherlands in regaining their ODI status in four years time.

Papua New Guinea on the other hand were already in decline during the later stages of the World Cricket League Championship. Fiji and Vanuatu appear to be closing the gap in the East Asia Pacific region, especially at youth level, and they will need to work hard if they are to avoid the seemingly terminal decline that has befallen Kenya and Bermuda since they lost their ODI status in 2014 and 2009 respectively.