T20 World Cup: West Indies open home tournament with nervy win over Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea's Sese Bau congratulates West Indies batter Roston Chase. Photo / AP

West Indies scrapped to a nervy five-wicket win before allrounder David Wieser helped Namibia edge Oman in a Super Over on Monday as the first two Twenty20 World Cup games in the Caribbean produced low-scoring but tense contests.

The Windies had to wait until the last over in Guyana to reach a victory target of 137-5 against Papua New Guinea.

The tournament opened on Sunday with co-host United States enjoying a seven-wicket win over Canada in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The West Indies would have expected to ease to their target after restricting PNG to 136-8 but the big hitters were restricted by the minnows’ spin bowlers.

Sese Bau guided the visitors’ innings, with his 50 making him only the second PNG batter to score a half-century at a T20 World Cup.

“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.