Stats: Papua New Guinea qualifies for the T20 World Cup after the greatest ever T20I comeback

Papua New Guinea became the first team to qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 from the ongoing Qualifiers in UAE. After the dramatic results on the final day of the league stage, PNG topped the Group A standings. They defeated Kenya by a 45-run margin and needed the Netherlands to not win big against Scotland. The Dutch team restricted Scotts to 130/8 and needed to chase it down in 12.3 overs for direct qualification.

The Netherlands were on course reaching 90/3 in 10 overs but the equation got out of hand when they lost two wickets in four balls. They eventually completed the chase in 17 overs amidst the celebrations from the PNG team in the stadium. Papua New Guinea won five of the six matches but the last one against Kenya was a special one. Kenya underperformed in the tournament winning only two of the six matches.

However, they reduced the PNG team to 19/6 by end of the 4th over with Emmanuel Bundi alone taking four wickets. The Assad Vala-led team tried to score runs at a quick pace to register a big win but the move seemed to have backfired. However, the No.8 batsman Norman Vanua rescued them with 48-ball 54. He added 77 for the 7th wicket with Sese Bau (17) while Jason Kila struck a couple of sixes to take them past the 100-run mark. They eventually got bowled out for 118 in 19.3 overs.

Kenya got off to a good start in the chase scoring 40 runs in the mandatory powerplay. They lost their 2nd wicket at the end of the 6th over and the spree of wickets never took hold. They were bowled out for only 73 runs with as many as 8 players getting dismissed for single figures. PNG’s 19/6 is the lowest score at fall of the 6th wicket in a T20I from which a team ended up on the winning side. In 2012 Women’s Asia Cup game, Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by five runs after being 27/6.

No team before PNG won a T20I after losing their 6th wicket for less than 40 runs in a Men’s T20I. Across all International matches, Papua New Guinea’s score of 19/6 is the 3rd lowest at the fall of 6th wicket from which a team ended up winning the game. England were 17/6 on the first day of the 1887 Sydney Test while Australia were reduced to 18/6 in the 1888 Lord’s Test after taking a 63-run first-innings lead.

Lowest score at fall of 6th wicket to still win an International match:

(Stats as on October 27, 2019)