ICC T20 World Cup 2024: West Indies Open Tournament With Win Over Papua New Guinea in Curtain-raiser

West Indies opened the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 with a curtain-raiser win over Papua New Guinea at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday to kickstart the 20-over spectacle.

The hosts of the tournament won the toss and opted to put Papa New Guinea to bat first, as the Windies managed to limit the minnows to a paltry total of 136 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 over quota, before chasing down the target in 19 overs.

The Windies trampled all over their opposition’s top order as they removed Tony Ura, Lega Saika, and skipper Assad Vala all within the powerplay overs as the PNG were reduced to 34 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in the first six overs.

Romario Shepard, Akeal Hosein and Alzzari Joseph removed the top three batters of their rivals to leave them startled early in the innings.

Hiri Hiri fell cheaply for 2 runs to Gudakesh Motie, while Charles Amini added 12 runs before falling to Andre Russell.

Sese Bau’s half-century in 42 deliveries, before he was sent back to the hut by Alzzari Joseph was the lone shining light in a sub-par batting performance from the side.

Chad Sopper became Russell’s second victim of the day as he was dismissed by the medium pacer for 10 runs before Alei Nao was dismissed for a duck before he could face a single delivery as Jospeh ran him out.

Kiplin Doriga stood unbeaten at 27 to close out the innings and take his side to the triple-digit total.

WI’s chase was off to a shaky start as they lost the wicket of opener Johnson Charles, who fell prey to Nao, on his first delivery in the T20 World Cup.

Nicholas Pooran, made a run-a-ball-27 before being scalped by John Kariko in the ninth over as the Windies added 61 runs to their team’s tally before the southpaw could return to the dressing room.

Brandon King, who contributed with 34 runs off 29 deliveries was scalped by Vala, before skipper Rovman Powell fell to Soper for 15 off 14.

Vala picked up his second wicket of the tournament with the dismissal of Sherfane Rutherford for just 2 runs.

However, Roston Chase and Russell accompanied each other as the hosts got over the target with 6 deliveries to spare with the former unbeaten on 42, while Russell chipped in with 15 runs to close out the chase.

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