The second day of play in the World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE saw a mixed bag of matches. Some were rather one-sided, whilst others went right down to the last over.

The one-sided match in the morning, other than the Ireland v Kenya contest, was the Bermuda v Hong Kong match at the secondary ground of the global cricket academy.

Batting first after winning the toss, Bermuda's innings was built around a run a ball 43 from skipper David Hemp, and boosted by some late innings hitting from Janeiro Tucker and Kamau Leverock to take the total to 161-5, usually a pretty tough target.

Hong Kong had other ideas though. Whilst they lost Babar Hayat in the first over, the second wicket pair of Irfan Ahmed and Durham University player Jamie Atkinson put on 113 before Ahmed was out for 50. Atkinson carried on from there, eventually finishing on 87 not out off 55 balls, hitting a six to take Hong Kong past their target for an eight wicket win.

It was a much closer contest on the main global cricket academy ground, as Canada took on Papua New Guinea. Batting first after Rizwan Cheema won the toss, Canada reached 167-5 from their 20 overs, the Ontario born 17 year old Nitish Kumar top scoring with 57 from 44 balls.

PNG started slowly, but kept wickets in hand, enabling them to increase the scoring rate as their innings progressed. Asad Vala scored 52, sharing in a 40 run partnership for the second wicket with Geraint Jones, who broke a run of low scores in international cricket with 39 from 32 balls. It wasn't enough for PNG though, as they fell just six runs short of the Canadian total.

Over in Abu Dhabi, the game between Italy and the USA also went down to the last over, with some tight death bowling from the Italians ensuring that they picked up a second win of the tournament. They lost the experienced Michael Di Venuto in the second over, but thanks to a quick-fire 49 from 28 balls from Carl Sandri, managed to score a below-par 137-6 from their 20 overs.

The USA run chase got off to the worst possible start when captain Sushil Nadkarni was caught behind from the first ball of the innings, and from then on, no batsmen managed to get a start. The low Italian score though meant that they were never far from the hunt, and they ended up needing 34 from the last four overs - not an impossible run chase in Twenty20 cricket.

Gareth Berg only conceded six in the 17th over, followed by Damien Crowley going for four and taking a wicket in the 18th. 24 needed from two overs, and Vince Pennazza went for just three from the penultimate over. A four and a six from the first two balls of Gareth Berg's final over briefly raised US hopes, but the Middlesex all-rounder held his nerve and went for just four more runs, and Italy had won by 8 runs.

If any of the players in that match had hung around Abu Dhabi for the afternoon game between Namibia and Scotland, they would have been treated to what, had it been in a higher profile match, be hailed as one of the all time great Twenty20 innings.

Louis van der Westhuzien, who has made a habit of hitting Twenty20 centuries in recent months, hit the ball to all parts of the impressive Abu Dhabi ground, but using only proper cricket shots, never slogging once. His chanceless innings started with a dot ball, but there wasn't many of them in the rest of his knock as he hit 106 from just 54 balls to take Namibia to a formidable 192-3 from 20 overs.

Whilst it wasn't as brutal as his 145 from 50 balls against Kenya in November, van der Westhuizen's innings will remain long in the memory for the few who saw it.

Scotland were always going to struggle to chase such a large target, and they were restricted to 143-8 from their 20 overs, van der Westhuzien showing he wasn't just a one trick pony by taking two wickets to complete a fine all-round performance, and he was the obvious choice for the man of the match award.

On any other day, the headlines would have been from the Denmark v Nepal match at the global cricket academy. Nepali leg-spinner Shakti Gauchan took a hat-trick in the Danish innings, from which they were unable to recover, being bowled out for just 82, Gauchan finishing with 4-20.

Paresh Lohani was dismissed early in the Nepal innings, but his opening partner Pradeep Airee took command of the innings, smashing an unbeaten 65 from 43 balls, ending the match with a six to secure a nine wicket win.

On the secondary ground of the global cricket academy, Oman batted first after winning the toss against Uganda. They reached 128-8 from their 20 overs, Zeeshan Siddiqui top scoring with 30. Davis Arinaitwe was the pick of the Ugandan bowlers with 3-21.

Uganda's chase was built around a run a ball 45 from opener Roger Mukasa, and they survived a spell of tight bowling in the middle overs to reach their target with five balls to spare, winning by three wickets.