Papua New Guinea's Asian tour which saw them play internationals in Oman, Hong Kong and now Malaysia came to a conclusion this weekend with a drawn series at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur.
The first game on Saturday saw Malaysia captain Virandeep Singh win the toss and choose to bowl first. A partnership of 139 for the third wicket between Charles Amini and Lega Siaka provided the bulk of the runs for the visitors. That pairing ended when Siaka was out for 55, whilst Amini finished the innings unbeaten on 91 from 53 balls out of a PNG total of 206-3.
A couple of Malaysian batters got starts but Ahmad Faiz's 36 was their top score. Charles Amini completed a fine all-round performance by taking 3-18 as the home side were restricted to 129-9 from their 20 overs, losing by 77 runs.
In the second game earlier today, Malaysia won the toss again but this time chose to bat first. Openers Syed Aziz and Virandeep Singh gave their team a good start with an 84 run opening partnership, which ended in the tenth over when Aziz fell for 53. Singh batted for the rest of the innings, finishing unbeaten on 65 as his team scored 161-4 from their 20 overs.
Scores of 24 by Hiri Hiri and 33 by Charles Amini were the only scores of note in the PNG reply as they were bowled out for 98, losing by 63 runs. As in the first game, the top scorer was also the leading bowler with Virandeep Singh taking four wickets for just eight runs.