At one point, they looked well out of the running. But a fine fightback with the bat followed by a good performance in the field got Hong Kong through to the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh next year.

With captain Jamie Atkinson out injured with a broken thumb, Waqas Barkat took over captaincy duties for the day, and he elected to bat first after winning the toss. And it soon looked like a terrible decision as Pipi Raho and Willie Gavera tore through the Hong Kong top order.

Gavera took three wickets, including the key wicket of Irfan Ahmed, and Hong Kong soon found themselves on the backfoot on 19-4. Babar Hayat and Munir Dar then set about rebuilding the Hong Kong innings with a fifth wicket partnership of 35, which ended when Dar was out for 22.

Hayat and Mark Chapman then put on 62 for the sixth wicket to really get Hong Kong back into the game, Chapman scoring 28 before he was bowled when giving himself way too much room for what was a stupid shot to attempt given the situation at the time.

Chapman's dismissal sparked another mini collapse as Hong Kong went from 116-5 to 120-9 in eight balls, but they did manage to bat out their overs, scoring 137-9. Pipi Raho and Willie Gavera both took three wickets for Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea's reply never really got going. Early on they were trying to score runs too quickly instead of trying to build a platform for acceleration later on, and were getting out because of it. Chris Amini top scored with 30 before becoming one of three victims for Munir Dar, but his runs came too late to make a difference.

They went from 101-6 to 108 all out in the late stages of their innings, losing by 29 runs.

Hong Kong now become the fourth Asian team to qualify from this tournament and join Afghanistan, Ireland, Nepal and the UAE in the preliminary stages of the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh next year. The sixth team will be decided later when the Netherlands play Scotland.

The tournament isn't over for either team though, as they will both have ranking play-offs to play tomorrow. Hong Kong will be in the fifth place play-off against the winners of the match between Scotland and the Netherlands, whilst the loser of that match will play Papua New Guinea in the seventh place play-off.