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By Peter Della Penna in Dublin, Ireland

Scorecard powered by New Inning Foundation I Ball-by-Ball Commentary

USA U-19 opening batsman Steven Taylor scored a record-breaking 140, but it wasn’t enough as Papua New Guinea U-19 held their nerve to win by 6 runs in a rain reduced game at Leinster CC on Friday at the 2011 ICC U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Dublin, Ireland. Taylor broke Cameron Mirza’s USA U-19 single game record score of 118 not out to be named Man of the Match in a losing cause.

“It was an awesome game of cricket and it was nice for us to come out with a win,” said Papua New Guinea U-19 head coach Andy Bichel. “Let’s not forget Steven Taylor’s innings, an amazing innings really. He hit the ball with power. I think he’s still only 17 so he’s got a bright future if he can keep everything together but he’s got the right things about his game at the moment and who knows down the track where he could end up if he does so.”

Image (above) - Steven Taylor set a new USA U-19 record for a single innings for scoring 140 vs. PNG U-19 at Leinster Cricket Club in Dublin, Ireland on Friday afternoon. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

USA won the toss and elected to field first in a game that was reduced to 43 overs. The start was delayed two hours and 15 minutes due to persistent morning rain. PNG openers Lega Siaka and Charles Amini put USA on the back foot right from the first ball with a 135-run partnership. The two players made a habit of dispatching anything loose to the boundary while their running between the wickets put USA’s fielders under immense pressure as they routinely stole singles inside the circle. For balls hit through the inner ring, Siaka and Amini hustled to turn singles into twos and twos into threes.

The stand was finally broken when Amini tried to turn another single into two but failed to get a response from Siaka. A relay from the midwicket boundary by Mirza was sent to Jodhbir Singh at the non-striker’s end where he fired a direct hit to the keeper’s end to have Amini out for 44. Siaka departed seven runs later at the start of the 25th over when he skied a flighted delivery from left-arm spinner Shayan Abdulghani to Hammad Shahid at mid on where he was caught for 73.

Mital Patel took the first of his four wickets after coming on for his second spell of medium pace bowling, getting number four batsman Sese Bau caught at point by Pranay Suri for 11 to make it 173 for 3 in the 31st over. USA could have put PNG under heavy pressure in the next over when PNG U-19 captain Chris Kent, on 19 at the time, was stranded halfway down the wicket after a mixup with the new man in Ratu Maha, but the throw to the stumps was wild and he was allowed to continue. Kent and Maha then produced a 62-run stand for the fourth wicket to regain control of the innings.

Kent reached his 50 in 52 balls, doing a superb job of farming the strike to keep the run rate going strong while Maha gave him steady support. The partnership was finally broken when Maha was caught slogging to long on for 21 where Singh completed a catch to give Patel his second wicket making it 235 for 4 in the 40th over. Patel struck twice more in the 42nd as Kent flicked to Ahmad at midwicket to depart for 60 before Toua Tom gave Singh his second catch on the boundary to go for 9. PNG added seven runs in the 43rd and final over to finish at 262 for 6. A day after conceding seven extras against Ireland, USA gave up 37 extras while spending seven fewer overs in the field against PNG in a very sloppy performance that also included an overthrow which went to the rope for four runs.

PNG opening bowler Raymond Haoda put USA into a deep hole early in the chase by taking three wickets in his first spell. Mirza edged to second slip without scoring for the second day in a row while Amarnauth Persaud was out LBW two balls later to make it 12 for 2 in the third over. Greg Sewdial came in and was dropped on 8 at third slip off Haoda in the fifth over but could only add 7 more runs to his score before edging to Maha at gully in the ninth and the score became 46 for 3.

“Raymond’s someone we’ve invested in. He showed signs in the Under-19 World Cup that he had potential to be a player of the future,” said Bichel about Haoda, who took 15 wickets at the 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup to lead all bowlers at the event in New Zealand, including Australia’s Josh Hazlewood who tied for second with 13. “He’s been in Australia pretty much on a scholarship out there with the Queensland Bulls. He’s been training in and around that squad and in their gym and he played Grade cricket in Brisbane last year. So he’s spent a bit of time away. He’s learned a few things and he’s improving. He’s an exciting young talent for us.”

As wickets were tumbling at one end, Taylor was finding his groove at the other. Taylor gave a half chance slicing a ball to point on 9 as the fielder got one hand to a diving effort, but from there the USA U-19 wicketkeeper settled down and focused on building a devastating innings. He continuously peppered the off side boundary, regardless of how many fielders were stacked there to seal off runs, by hitting through and over the infield. He reached his 50 in 40 balls with seven fours and two sixes.

Taylor produced a 51 run stand with Abhijit Joshi for the fourth wicket before Joshi chipped a leg stump half volley straight to Siaka at midwicket off the bowling of medium pacer Alei Nao for 9 just four deliveries after he’d been let off when he hit an Amini full toss that was dropped at mid on. Two overs later, Taylor should have been out for 64 with the score on 101 for 4 when he edged a wide delivery from Nao straight to wicketkeeper Dogodo Bau who spilled a simple chance.

Singh had just arrived at the crease and teamed up with Taylor to make PNG pay for the mistake by forging USA’s highest partnership of the innings, 62 runs for the fifth wicket. The pair took apart the leg-spin served up by Amini and Kent for a series of boundaries as PNG struggled to cope with the big hitting of each player. Kent finally got rid of Singh after he top edged a full toss to the midwicket boundary for 21 to make it 159 for 5 in the 27th over. Two balls later, Taylor clipped a full delivery through the on side to bring up his 100 in 87 balls with 14 fours and two sixes.

In an attempt to keep the scoring tempo high, Suri was run out for 1 attempting to come back for a second run to keep Taylor on strike after the opener drove a delivery from Kent straight down the ground. USA’s poor running between the wickets bit them again two overs later when Salman Ahmad pushed a full delivery from Haoda, back for a third spell, into the covers and stayed put while Taylor ran for what appeared to be a clear single. Both men wound up at the keeper’s end before Ahmad left his crease to sacrifice himself just before the ball was tossed from Amini to Haoda at the non striker’s end and USA fell to 192 for 7.

As long as Taylor was at the crease, USA seemed destined for victory, but the south Florida product finally fell for 140 when he drove a wide delivery in the air to Amini on the cover boundary off the bowling of Nao to make it 207 for 8 in the 36th over. Six balls later, Abdulghani edged medium pacer Norman Vanua behind to the keeper Bau and the match looked safely in PNG’s hands at 209 for 9.

However, Patel came in at number 11 and battled hard with Shahid to keep hope alive for USA as the batting power play was taken at the start of the 38th over. The last wicket pair produced 35 runs through the next four overs with each man taking some meaty swings to clear the ropes. Shahid hit a four and two sixes while Patel struck two boundaries and one maximum to leave USA entering the final over with nine to win. Shahid was on strike at 21 not out and Patel off strike on 20.

Shahid hit the first ball straight down the ground as Patel hared back for two just ahead of the throw from the boundary. On the second delivery of the over, Shahid skipped down the track to meet a knee high full toss which he drove powerfully in the air wide of long on, but he didn’t get under it quite enough as Sese Bau covered 20 yards running to his left before sliding to take a matchwinning catch two yards in from the rope. Shahid slumped onto his knees while the entire PNG squad sprinted out to the rope to pile on top of Bau. Shahid’s 23 at number nine was USA’s second highest score off the bat behind Taylor with PNG also contributing 25 extras to the total.

“I think there’s a bit of spirit that comes through you’ve just probably seen there at the end of the match,” said Bichel. “PNG’s got that unique spirit. They’re great to watch. They play in the right vein as well. They’re just out there trying to enjoy every moment and I just think that probably in the end that might be the difference. I think any team that I’ve played in, that team spirit, team passion, wanting to do it for each other, if you can have that it is special. I think PNG, the country itself, the way they play their game of cricket at senior level and also at Under-19 level, they have that so it is special and that’s one little advantage for them moving forward.”

Image (above) - Raymond Haoda (second from right) howls in delight as his teammates mob Sese Bau who took the winning catch on the boundary to give PNG U-19 the win. [Courtesy: Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]

In the day’s other matches, Namibia made it two for two with a six-wicket win over Vanuatu, Ireland scraped a four-run win against Afghanistan to stay perfect as well, Kenya remained undefeated with a 15-run win over Canada while Scotland notched their first win after defeating Nepal by 57 runs. Scotland, Nepal, PNG and Canada are all 1-1 while Vanuatu, Afghanistan and USA are still winless after the first two days.

Saturday is an off day for all teams before play resumes Sunday with USA U-19 set to take on Namibia U-19 at North County. DreamCricket.com’s live coverage, made possible in part by New Innings Foundation, will commence at 10 a.m. local time, 5 a.m. EST in the USA with the match scheduled for a 10:45 a.m. start.