Scotland stand on brink of T20 World Cup second round after beating Papua New Guinea

Scotland's George Munsey plays a shot during the ICC mens Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Scotland and Papua New Guinea at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground in Muscat on October 19, 2021. (Photo by Haitham AL-SHUKAIRI / AFP) (Photo by HAITHAM AL-SHUKAIRI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Scots went into their First Round Group B match against Papua New Guinea in the Al Amerat Stadium in Oman off the back of their stunning triumph over Bangladesh on Sunday.

And although there were a few wobbles with both bat and ball, Shane Burger’s men came out on top by 17 runs to leave them on course to progress to the ‘Super 12’ phase.

Berrington, the 34-year-old, has been there and done it with Scotland before and he did not panic when he came to the wicket with the team 26-2 batting first.

“It took a little bit of time to get in on that wicket and it was just important that myself and Crossy put together a partnership which the team could build on,” Berrington, who made 70 off 49 balls, said.

“At first we didn’t have a team total in mind that we wanted to post, but we managed to start finding boundaries and I think the score we got up to was just above a par score.

“PNG caused us some issues, but the bowlers stuck to their job and it was good to get a win.”

Berrington and Cross put on 92 runs for the third wicket to set-up this victory and then the bowling attack, led well by 4-18 from Josh Davey, performed well as 165-9 played 148 all out.

Scotland won the toss and decided to bat, but things got off to a sticky start when skipper Kyle Coetzer was bowled by Kabua Morea in the third over.

Opening partner George Munsey then followed him back to the pavilion in the next over for 15.

Cross, on his 50th international cap in this format, and Berrington then came together and at the halfway stage of the innings the team had reached 67-2.

Cross looked to be heading for a half century, but was out for 45 in the 15th over.

Berrington carried on and reached his 50 before the last three overs garnered just 19 runs and saw six wickets fall as PNG battled hard.

Josh Davey bowled Tony Ura with the ninth ball of PNG’s reply to set the tone and then Brad Wheal had Lega Siaka, who had a spell with Grange in 2011, caught behind by wicketkeeper Cross in the fourth over.

PNG captain Assad Vala then became Ali Evans first scalp of the tournament before great work from Michael Leask secured a run out and then Davey’s second wicket - thanks to a cracking catch from Berrington - saw PNG slump to 34-5.

They regrouped through some big hitting from Norman Vanua and Kiplin Doriga which caused Scotland some issues before spinner Mark Watt had the latter stumped by Cross to stifle the PNG attack in the 17th over.

Wickets continued to fall, Davey finishing things off in the 20th over and next up is Oman on Thursday.