“Credit has to be given to PNG, their plans were simple and they played good cricket,” West Indies skipper Rovman Powell said.
PNG didn’t allow the hosts to run away with the chase and had them worried at 97-5 after 16 overs. Roston Chase made an unbeaten 42 off 27 balls and carried the team home.
“It was a competitive score but we believe we missed a trick towards the end,” PNG skipper Assad Vala said. “Another 10 to 15 runs would have been nice.”
The Black Caps, Uganda and Afghanistan are the other teams in Group C. The top two teams in each of the four groups advance to the playoff stage.
In Barbados, Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann set a record in a dramatic Group B game, becoming the first man to take wickets with the first two deliveries of a T20 international. The left-arm fast bowler took another wicket in his second over and returned a career-best 4-21.
Namibia were on course for victory, needing five runs off the last six balls with Jan Frylinck unbeaten on 45, but Mehran Khan took two wickets and Oman narrowly missed a runout chance.
Namibia finished on 109-6, with Wieser 9 not out. The 39-year-old allrounder then went to work in the tiebreaking Super Over, striking a four and a six to help his team plunder 21 batting first.
Wieser, who took 3-28 in the regulation overs, then took a wicket and restricted Oman to 10-1 in a player-of-the-match performance.
“Aged a couple of years tonight - (and) I don’t have a lot of years left in me,” the 39-year-old Wiese said. “Emotionally draining evening.”
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said his batters needed to be more accountable in the momentum-shifting moments.
“It was a tough one on a tough wicket like that,” he said. “It was great to be part of. Winning a close game early breaks the duck and brings you into the tournament.”
Oman captain Aqib Ilyas agreed it was a draining, exciting game. “Some days it is your day, some days it goes the opposite way,” he said.
