PNG keep winning, Malaysia beat Hong Kong

Papua New Guinea remained the only undefeated team in the four nations Air Niugini International Supa Series after beating Singapore by five wickets in Port Moresby on Thursday.

Singapore elected to bat on a good track and their openers began strongly as Chetan Surayawanshi and Buddhika Mendis put on 54 from eight overs before Surawanshi was dismissed for 34.

The visitors managed to put together decent partnerships which enabled them to finish on a healthy 225 for 6 from their 50 overs. A Param top-scored for Singapore with 77 and received good support in the latter stage of the innings from M Arora with an unbeaten 48. This was despite the restrictive bowling of PNG spinners, Mahurua Dai and Jason Kila.

Opener, Tony Ura, hit his second fifty in successive days to provide the PNG reply with a solid foundation. Together with Vui Vagi Morea and Assad Vala he lifted PNG were lifted to within striking distance of the Singapore total.

Kila Pala almost saw them home, falling with the score on 221, while Arua remained unbeaten on 27. Narender Reddy took two wickets for Singapore, while Mendis showed his versatility, taking 1 for 23 from 8 overs.

In the other match, Malaysia cruised to a comfortable 42 run win over Hong Kong at the Colts Ground. Najeeb Amar grabbed 5 for 27 but his efforts weren't enough to save Hong Kong from suffering their second loss.

Najeeb's superb bowling effort was the highlight of a good performance in the field by Hong Kong who did well to restrict Malaysia to a modest total after their openers had laid a solid foundation. Opening batsman Sharif top-scored with 49 while Rosmanizam provided good support with 40. A big score looked likely as Malaysia reached 1-84 but the run out of Sharif and some effective bowling from Najeeb triggered a middle order collapse. The Malaysians were eventually restricted to 207 for 9 from their 50 overs.

Hong Kong's reply got off to a poor start with the early dismissal of Waqas Barkat. But a steadying partnership between Roy Lamsam and Jamie Atkinson lifted the score to 40 before Atkinson was bowled with his score on 19. Ilyas Gull and Najeeb Amar made useful contributions but wickets fell at inopportune moments for Hong Kong and they never managed to get on top of their run chase. A late flourish from Asif Khan gave Hong Kong some brief hope but none of the other lower order batsmen stayed around long enough to give him the support he needed and Hong Kong crashed to 165 all out in 41.5 overs to stay winless. The chief destroyer for Malaysia was opening bowler Navaratnam who claimed 4 for 41 from his ten overs while Rahim cleaned up the tail with 3 for 12.