Melbourne: Global cricketers hailed one of the sport’s “feel good” stories of the year on Monday after Papua New Guinea dug themselves out of a huge hole at a Dubai qualifier to book their maiden appearance at the T20 World Cup in Australia next year alongside Ireland.
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Emerging cricket nation PNG were 19 for six against Kenya after an early collapse at Dubai International Stadium but ended up thrashing the Africans by 45 runs on Sunday.
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PNG then had a nervous wait for the result of the Netherlands’ game against Scotland, but they ultimately topped their group at the tournament due to a higher net run rate and qualify directly for Australia, their first World Cup in any format.
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The PNG players celebrated wildly in the stadium’s terraces and their Australian coach Joe Dawes was overwhelmed.
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“I am feeling a little emotional,” former Queensland bowler Dawes told the global governing body ICC.
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“It’s been a pretty big two years, for them to achieve this is pretty special.”
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Dawes said planning for next year’s tournament could wait.
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“We are just going to enjoy the moment. For them to achieve this is a great thing for us and for the nation.”
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PNG’s automatic qualification came at the expense of the Netherlands, who defeated Scotland but will have to take the play-offs route to reach Australia.
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Ireland also made sure of a place in the finals in Australia courtesy of results elsewhere going in their favour, with Jersey defeating Oman on the final day of group-stage action.
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Jersey made 141-7 and then limited Oman to 127-9 to win by 14 runs.
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As well as reaching next year’s showpiece, both PNG and Ireland will also progress to the semi-finals of the ongoing qualifying tournament, where they play the winners of the two semi-final play-offs.
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The first of those will see Netherlands, who finished second in Group A, face the UAE as the third-ranked team in Group B. The winner of that match will face Ireland while they will also qualify for the World Cup.
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