T20 World Cup: West Indies open their account with a 5-wicket win ...

PROVIDENCE, Guyana (AP) — West Indies scrapped to a nervy five-wicket win over Papua New Guinea as the Twenty20 World Cup of cricket held its first match in the Caribbean on Sunday.

On Saturday, co-host United States enjoyed a seven-wicket win over Canada in the tournament opener at Grand Prairie, Texas.

PNG’s spinners restrained West Indies’ power hitters but it wasn’t enough as the tournament co-hosts reached a victory target of 137-5 with an over to spare.

Sese Bau had earlier become only the second PNG batter to score a half century at a T20 World Cup. His 50-run knock lifted the Pacific nation’s team to 136-8 from 20 overs after West Indies captain Rovman Powell won the toss and elected to field on a spin-friendly wicket.

“Credit has to be given to PNG, their plans were simple and they played good cricket,” Powell said.

PNG didn’t allow West Indies to run away with the chase and had the hosts worried at 97-5 in 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.”

Fast bowler Alei Nao had West Indies’ opener Johnson Charles trapped leg before wicket off his first ball for a duck and could have got key batter Nicholas Pooran lbw two balls later, but PNG decided not to go for television referral before rain briefly took the players off the field in the second over.

On resumption, Brandon King (34) and Pooran (27) shared a 53-run stand before both were caught in the outfield in successive overs against the spin of John Kariko (1-17) and Vala (2-28).

Powell (15) and Sherfane Rutherford (2) struggled to counterattack the spinners before getting caught behind cheaply but Chase remained composed and didn’t let the game slip away.

“I knew from our first innings bowling, it was always hard for batsmen coming in to start,” Chase said. “To start the tournament with a win is always good. I had to take it home for the team, and I did it.”

Earlier, Bau’s fourth T20 half century gave PNG’s total some respectability after the top-order collapsed to 34-3 inside the first six overs as left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein got appreciable turn off the wicket from ball one.

Romario Shepherd struck off his fifth ball when Tony Ura edged behind and Hosein sliced through the defense of Lega Siaka off a delivery that turned sharply into the right-handed batter.

Vala struck Alzarri Joseph (2-34) for two boundaries before he was splendidly caught at backward point by Chase. PNG further slipped to 50-4 in the ninth over before Bau and Charles Amini (12) combined in a 44-run stand.

Allrounder Andre Russell (2-19), a star for Indian Premier League champion Kolkata Knight Riders, broke the stand when Amini got the top edge of his bat while attempting to cut the cross-seam delivery.

Bau’s 43-ball knock featured six boundaries and a six. It was ended in Joseph’s return spell as the paceman bowled him with a deceptive slow off-cutter.

New Zealand, 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.

Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann set a record later Sunday in the Group C game against Oman, 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, also taking the catch to finish the Oman innings at 109.

He trapped Kashyap Prajapati leg before wicket with an in-swinging yorker on the first ball of the match and then Oman skipper Aqib Ilyas with a toecrusher, hitting him on the foot directly in front.

Namibia was chasing a 110 for victory at Bridgetown, Barbados.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket