Canada prevails over PNG in tight battle for 11th

Canada snatched 11th place from Papua New Guinea when the teams met at Nelson Park in Napier for the Plate Championship play-off, winning a low-scoring match by two wickets.

Canada left its run-chase late, and only brought up the winning runs in the final over of the match, after fortunes had see-sawed during the day.

Apart from an early onslaught from Papua New Guinea openers Heni Siaka and Lega Tau, who put on 65 for the first wicket at the start of the match, neither side held complete control of the match until the final overs.

Siaka was Papua New Guinea's top scorer with 50 from 70 balls including four boundaries. He combined well with Lega Tau, 24, the pair running well for singles and twos to set the team up for what should have been a big total. But Canada attacked the middle order hard, taking five wickets within the space of 17 runs to have the batting side at 97 for six, and finally restricting Papua New Guinea to 147. The main destroyers for Canada were Parth Desai and Nitish Kumar who both finished with three for 23.

Canada struggled early in its reply losing quick wickets and was in trouble at 26 for three. But Kumar, 38, and Usman Limbada, 21, steadied the ship with a valuable 40-run partnership and Canada gained an edge with small but crucial partnerships for the last four wickets. The side still had 10 runs to get with the fall of the eighth wicket, but level heads saw the side through to victory with five balls to spare.

Nitish Kumar won the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance with both bat and ball, taking three wickets and top-scoring with 38 for Canada.
Score summary

Papua New Guinea v Canada at Nelson Park, Napier (Plate Championship Runner Up Final 11th/12th)

Papua New Guinea 145 all out in 47.1 overs (Heni Siaka 50; Parth Desai 3-23, Nitish Kumar 3-23, Hiral Patel 2-25)

Canada 146-8 in 49.1 overs (Nitish Kumar 38; Raymond Haoda 2-25)

Canada won by 2 wickets

Man of the Match: Nitish Kumar