The pair picked up six wickets between them to restrict Papua New Guinea to 96 for 8
Ireland 99 for 2 (Balbirnie 42*, Campher 42*) beat PNG 96 for 8 (Vala 32, White 3-10, Young 3-15) by eight wickets
Ireland were too strong for Papua New Guinea, registering an eight-wicket win as the sides started their preparations for the men’s T20 World Cup with a warm-up fixture in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
PNG elected to bat and limped to 49 for 2 by the 12th over before the floodgates opened. Ben White, the legspinner, ripped through the middle-order to finish with 3 for 10 off his four overs. It included the big strike of PNG captain Assad Vala, also the top-scorer in the innings, with 32. It looked like the innings would unravel quickly after that, but Norman Vanua’s unbeaten 14-ball 18, which included the only six of the innings, kept them going. Craig Young, the seamer, polished the lower order to also finish with a three-for.
Ireland lost Kevin O’Brien and Gareth Delany in the space of an over, but were driven home by Andy Balbirnie, the captain, and Curtis Campher, who both hit unbeaten 42s and put together an unbroken stand of 71.
More to follow…
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo