Usman and Ahmed excel as UAE beat PNG in warm-up match

Gearing up for the ICC men’s T20 World Cup 2020 qualifiers, hosts UAE got their second warm-up win against Papua New Guinea (PNG) in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Batting first after winning the toss, UAE posted 193 for the loss of three wickets from the allotted 20 overs.

UAE overcame a measured start to post 50/2 in the Powerplay, and built from there. Nine sixes were struck in their 193/2, with Mohammad Usman accounting for two in his 38-ball 60 and Waheed Ahmed striking four in a cameo of 36* off 11 balls.

The PNG batsmen got starts, but with only Sese Bau reaching 40, they could go no further than 178/7, falling to a 15-run loss. Ahmad took three wickets for 36.

The qualifiers will get underway on Friday, with Scotland facing Singapore in the opening Group A game, while Ireland take on Hong Kong and the UAE play Oman in Group B.

Hosts UAE, who are among the favourites to qualify for the World Cup, are brimming with confidence after their second victory in the warm-up games. They defeated Scotland on Monday.

Only six top teams from the qualifiers will compete in the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.

Scotland are the highest-ranked team in the competition, with 14 nations vying for six places in the opening round of next year’s World T20 in Australia, where they would join Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in attempting to reach the ‘Super 12s’.

Ireland are the only Test team having to go through qualifying, which starts on Friday in the UAE and will be expected to book a sixth straight appearance in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Scotland see off Ireland by a run in final warm-up match.

They played out a thriller in Abu Dhabi, with Scotland prevailing by a run.

Scotland opted to bat at the Tolerance Oval on Tuesday, and got off to a terrific start thanks to George Munsey. The opening stand was worth 78 runs, which came in seven overs, but his partner Kyle Coetzer contributed just a 16-ball 15 before falling to George Dockrell. Munsey himself was the next to fall, four overs later, but by that time he had taken the score to 119 in 10 overs.

The middle order couldn’t really capitalise on the foundation laid. Oli Haris hammered an 18-ball 39, but the most the other seven batsmen managed was a 12-ball 17 by Matthew Cross. That was still enough to push their total to a daunting 210/8, but Ireland made a proper fist of the chase.

Despite losing Kevin O’Brien for nought early on, Gareth Delaney and Andrew Balbirnie combined to take the chase forward.

Balbirnie hung around, scoring a 48-ball 70, putting on mini partnerships with Harry Tector and Gary Wilson before falling with the total at 154. Then, Mark Adair took charge, scoring a 24-ball 45 to take Ireland to the brink of victory.

However, his dismissal in the penultimate ball by Safyaan Sharif turned the momentum Scotland’s way, and they just about survived.

Oman 164/5 170/6 (19.4 overs) beat the Netherlands 169/3 (20.0 overs) by four wickets at Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi.

More last-over drama saw Oman edge out the Netherlands by four wickets with just two balls to spare. The Dutch, batting first, set a decent total of 169 off the back of Ben Cooper’s 60 off 47 balls and Ryan ten Doeschate’s (36 off 15 balls) late flurry of boundaries.

Oman timed their chase perfectly, though, with major contributions from Jatinder Singh (64 off 43) and Khurram Ali (21) before Khurram Ali (23) and S Goud (16) saw them home.

Canada 191/8 (20 overs) beat Kenya 165/8 (20.0 overs) by 26 runs at ICC Academy 2 in Dubai.

The Canadians never looked in danger in this contest. Batting first, they notched up a challenging total of 191 on the back of significant knocks by Nicholas Kirton (61 off 48 balls) and captain Navneet Dhaliwal (46 off 27 balls). Kenya chipped in with eight wickets (2 each for Otieno and Ngoche) but could not control the Canadian run-rate.

In reply, Kenya made a decent fist of a tough target but were never quite within reach. Opener Obanda was their top scorer with 46 off 34 balls, with Jeremy Gordon the pick of the Canadian bowlers with 3/27.