Day 2 wrap: UAE, Scotland & PNG back in the hunt, Dutch strong, Ireland wobbly.

On Saturday, a bumper Day 2 of five matches gave us more pulsating cricket as the Netherlands won their second in two days, sending them to the top of Group with a commanding victory over Namibia in the afternoon game at ICCA.

That same ground saw PNG’s first ever international hattrick when EC Ambassador Norman Vanua ripped through the Bermudan middle order in the morning game. The Gombey Warriors never recovered from there and the Barras won by ten wickets, hoping to get their form back on track after having lost eight CWC League 2 matches on the trot in the preceding months.

Scotland responded to their “shock” loss to Singapore on Friday by beating Kenya by 31 runs, on the back of a Richie Berrington scoring 27 and taking 3 for 17 in a POTM performance befitting his number 4 position in the ICC all rounder rankings in the format. Wicketkeeper bat Matthew Cross and Tom Sole put on 53 in 4.3 overs for the sixth wicket to help the Saltires get to 170/6.

Sole was then the lone spinner to take a wicket as Safyaan Sharif and Josh Davey each took two along with Berrington’s three to restrict Kenya to 139/8 after a promising start.

UAE will have hoped they have turned their fortunes around after their sub-par performance on Day 1 against Oman when they put in an impressive showing in the evening game at Zayed Stadium, beating Ireland by 5 wickets.

Rohan Mustafa was Mr Everywhere with 37 runs, 4 wickets, 2 run outs and a catch.

In Group B’s the morning game, Jersey made light work of debutants Nigeria, defeating them by 69 runs.

Tables after Day 2

GROUP A
TEAM	M	W	L	PT	NRR
Netherlands	2	2	0	4	1.85
Papua New Guinea	1	1	0	2	4.26
Scotland	2	1	1	2	0.725
Singapore	1	1	0	2	0.1
Kenya	2	0	2	0	-1.525
Namibia	1	0	1	0	-2.2
Bermuda	1	0	1	0	-4.26

GROUP B
TEAM	M	W	L	PT	NRR
Jersey	1	1	0	2	3.45
Oman	1	1	0	2	0.545
UAE	2	1	1	2	0.301
Ireland	2	1	1	2	-0.122
Hong Kong	1	0	1	0	-1.292
Nigeria	1	0	1	0	-3.45
Canada	0	0	0	0	0

Day 3 Fixtures:

20 October: PNG v Namibia (10h00), Bermuda v Singapore (14h10) at ICC Academy 2; Hong Kong v Oman (14h10) at Zayed Cricket Stadium (broadcast), Canada v Jersey (10h00) at ADC 1.