Papua New Guinea have qualified for the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup after beating Philippines by 100 runs in Port Moresby to guarantee a first-place finish in the East Asia-Pacific Qualifier.
Quickfire fifties from Tony Ura, Assad Vala and Charles Amini laid the platform for PNG to post a total of 229 for 6 in their 20 overs after they were sent in to bat. Philippines only managed 129 for 7 in their chase.
PNG have won all five of their matches so far, and will end their tournament with a match against Japan on Saturday.
Japan, second on the four-team table with six points from their first four games, began Friday with a chance of keeping their qualifying hopes alive if they beat Vanuatu. That didn't happen, however, as Vanuatu rode on a dominant all-round display from Nalin Nipiko - four wickets and an unbeaten 50-ball 74 - to pick up their first win of the tournament.
The 2024 T20 World Cup, scheduled to be hosted jointly by the West Indies and the USA, is set to be a 20-team tournament. The teams will be divided into four groups of five each for the first round, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the Super 8 stage. The Super 8 teams will be split into two groups of four each, with the top two in each group reaching the semi-finals.
Twelve teams had already qualified for the next T20 World Cup before the regional qualifiers. These are hosts West Indies and USA, the top eight teams at the 2022 T20 World Cup - Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka - and Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who qualified by virtue of the T20I rankings.
Apart from PNG, seven other teams will make the tournament via regional qualifiers. On Friday, Ireland and Scotland sealed their spots by finishing in the top two positions in the Europe Region Qualifier. Qualifiers for the Americas (for one spot), Africa (two spots) and Asia (two spots) will also take place over the coming months.
