Papua New Guinea 127 for 5 (Vala 37, Bau 34*, van der Merwe 2-27) beat Netherlands 126 for 7 (van der Gugten 40*, Amini 2-34) by five wickets

It was classic Papua New Guinea cricket: Field the daylights out and run like demons between the wickets to outwork a more celebrated opponent. These staples became all the more impressive in the oppressive desert heat as they knocked off the previously undefeated Netherlands by five wickets chasing a target of 127 with an over to spare.

The Dutch top-order struggled to produce runs for the second match in a row, dismantled by the disciplined medium pace and spin bowling from PNG backed up by relentless fielding. Tobias Visee fell in the third over, skying a slower ball to mid-on off Nosaina Pokana for 12. His opening partner Max O'Dowd also failed to clear mid-on in the fifth, caught on the ring for 13.

Hard to judge from a distance. But from @PeterDellaPenna tweets it seems Holland were out cricketed today. PNG do all the basics so well, on paper Holland should win, but it just shows what energy, discipline, simple plans, good fielding and running between the wickets can do.

— Peter Borren (@dutchiepdb) October 24, 2019

Man of the Match Sese Bau got his day rolling early inducing a soft chip back from Ben Cooper on the last ball of the Powerplay to make it 37 for 3. But Bau had an even bigger moment three overs later when he ran out Ryan ten Doeschate, who scratched around for 3 off 8 balls and tried to get off strike nudging to backward point only for Bau to pounce and send him back with an underhand flick direct hit after Colin Ackermann turned down the run from the non-striker's end.

Ackermann skied a flick off Riley Hekure's medium pace to short third man for the fifth wicket before Lega Siaka took an outstanding tumbling catch charging in from deep midwicket to give Charles Amini his first, claiming Roelof van der Merwe. Amini struck again in his next over when Scott Edwards succumbed to a top-edged sweep that caromed off his arm and lobbed up for an easy catch by Kiplin Doriga moving from behind the stumps to forward short leg.

At 74 for 7, Netherlands produced a stirring late rally from Timm van der Gugten. The new father struck three sixes in the last three overs over long-off, deep midwicket and long-on in a brisk 40 not out off 21 balls, doing the bulk of the work in a 52-run partnership with captain Pieter Seelaar to end the innings.

But PNG's opening stand showed how far below par the total was. Assad Vala and Tony Ura added 47, aided by some atrocious Netherlands fielding which carried on all the way through the chase. Ura was dropped on 14 in the fifth over hooking Paul van Meekeren to deep backward square where ten Doeschate put down a chance on the run. Ura finally fell for 23 in the eighth, skying a drive off Ackermann to van der Gugten at long-off. Siaka fell for a golden duck next over to make it 50 for 2 prodding down the wrong line of an arm ball from van der Merwe.

But Amini and Vala continued to forge ahead, showing no mercy as they milked singles and twos at will on Dutch fielders who were always a step slow. Van der Gugten kept Netherlands in it striking on his first ball of a new spell in the 13th to get Vala for 38. Bau replaced him and ran even harder between the wickets with Amini as the pair triggered more misfields along the ground. Van der Merwe came up with the last good bit of Dutch fielding with a direct hit at the non-striker's end from midwicket to nail Amini for 17.

Bau started to put the final nails in the coffin in the 18th by slicing Brandon Glover to third man where Visee misfielded to turn a single into four, then drove down the ground for another boundary. A pull in the 19th to deep square leg was spilled into the boundary by Ackermann to level the scores before the match appropriately ended on another misfield by van Meekeren at mid-off for the winning single. PNG now top Group A, equal on points with Netherlands but with a massive net run-rate advantage.

UAE 112 for 5 (Farid 55, Okpe 2-22) beat Nigeria 111 for 3 (Adedeji 51*, Onwuzulike 46*) by five wickets

After losing their previous game against Jersey, UAE returned to the winning ways when they rode on an excellent bowling performance and opener Zawar Farid's quick half-century to put it past Nigeria at Abu Dhabi's Tolerance Oval in a Group B match of the men's T20 World Cup qualifiers.

The win, UAE's third in five games, put them level on points at the top of the table with Canada and Oman, but both of them have played fewer games than the home side and have a better net run rate. For Nigeria, meanwhile, it was a fourth loss in as many matches.

The day started with Ahmed Raza winning the toss and asking Nigeria to bat, and it was slow going for the batting side for the most part. Openers Sulaimon Runsewe and Daniel Ajekun found it tough to score early on, and were both dismissed by the end of the third over with just two runs on the board. Leke Oyede, the No. 3, didn't have it any easier as he managed only four runs off 18 deliveries when Raza accounted for him.

At that stage, Nigeria were 22 for 3 after 7.2 overs, but it did get better for them with Chimezie Onwuzulike and Sesan Adedeji, who batted through the rest of the overs while adding 89 runs together. Onwuzulike ended with an unbeaten 46 in 42 balls and Adedeji 51 not out in 48 balls. For UAE, left-arm spinner Sultan Ahmed ended with remarkable numbers - 4-2-6-0 - while Junaid Siddique and Raza returned identical figures of 1 for 15 from their four overs.

Rohan Mustafa and Farid gave UAE a good start in response, the two adding 35 runs before Mustafa was dismissed by Chima Akachukwu for an eight-ball 14 in the fifth over. Farid, the dominant partner in that stand, continued in the same vein with Chirag Suri as his partner, the two adding 43 runs for the second wicket in which Suri's contribution was just eight runs. Farid fell to the medium pace of Daniel Gim for a 35-ball 55, and Suri fell soon after to offspinner Sylvester Okpe. Neither Waheed Ahmed nor Mohammad Boota lasted for long, but the target was meagre enough for UAE to canter past it in 12.3 overs, helping their net run rate significantly.

UAE next play Canada on Sunday, while Nigeria take on Ireland a day before.

The coach and former orienteering champion offers insight into tackling big distances

As a young man, Marcus Scotney got his highs from drugs. He now gets them from running ultra races and from helping others to achieve their running and sometimes life goals.

Athletics Weekly: How did you get started running?

Marcus Scotney: I started orienteering when I was 14. It was the beginning of my running career – I won the Avon Schools Orienteering Championships when I was 16. After a period of taking drugs, dealing and going off the rails in my late teens, I returned to running when I was 20, running my first mountain marathon with a broken jaw.

I joined Beaumont Leys Running Club in Leicester in 1996 and excelled as a road runner, even competing at the county 5000m and 10,000m championships and winning the Road Winter League in 1997 before venturing on to the fells and dabbling in fell running. I went back to road running in 2002 when I lived in Dumfries, running a 69-minute half-marathon in 2005.

AW: Why did you start doing ultras?

MS: I had had a period of depression in 2007 and decided to run the Devil o’ the Highlands (42-mile trail ultra event) in 2008 in preparation for my first marathon later in the year. Also, two of my fellow Dumfries Running Club members were running for Scotland at the Anglo Celtic Plate 100km Champs. I was intrigued hearing their stories of running the 100km and thought if they can get an international vest then I could as I always beat them in races.

At the same time former world 100km champion Caroline Hunter-Rowe joined the club and started coaching me.

AW: What has been your favourite ultra?

MS: My favourite is probably the hardest as well and it’s the Dragons Back Race – a five- day race down through the Welsh mountains. It covers 300km with 15,000m of ascent – each day is an ultra. It is incredibly hard and demanding on the body and steeped in history. It completely broke me and I was left with a knee injury.

AW: And your best achievement?

MS: Winning and setting the new course record at the Dragons Back Race in 2017.

AW: If you were to advise a “reasonable standard marathon” runner to tackle an ultra, what type of race or specific race would be your choice?

MS: … a trail ultra between 50km to 100km to begin with.

AW: How should this reasonable standard marathon runner begin to train for an ultra? Is it a case of “just” upping mileage or can you run a 50-miler, for example, on slightly adapted marathon training?

MS: Increasing the volume and reducing the intensity to develop endurance is crucial. I find using a heart rate monitor the best way of gauging this. You need to lose the ego and let go of being a slave to pace and begin to focus on time on feet at a low intensity. Training at a pace which feels easy and is conversational and develops the aerobic energy system is imperative for successful ultra marathon completion.

Don’t be afraid of recovery, especially after an ultra. It takes a long time to recover, so taking a week or two weeks off afterwards is always a good thing.

AW: Fuelling is obviously crucial for ultras. Any advice there?

MS: Find what works for you, there are so many different energy products to choose from. I use Mountain Fuel and Clif Bloks in ultras and don’t deviate from them. It is important to make sure you test any nutrient strategy out in training to make sure it works for you and that your stomach and gut is used to the fuel.

The food stations at some races are notorious for the selection of food available, this is one of the reasons why I tell people that running an ultra is easier than running a road marathon … you might be on your feet for longer but you can stop at the checkpoint, eat cake and have a cup of tea before setting off for the next aid station.

AW: What’s the toughest part about running ultras? Do you expect to have a “dark period” and what tips have you got for getting through?

MS: There is a quote that says running an ultra is 70% mental, 30% physical. There are many tough parts of running an ultra, and running for such lengths leads to the body breaking down and hurting. It’s at those “dark times” when having mental toughness helps.

Developing a growth mindset is a great way to cope, too. Visualisation is a great skill to incorporate into training runs – visualising yourself finishing the race strongly or running part of the course and how great it will feel running the ultra.

I have found using meditation has helped with being able to control my emotions in the tough times of an ultra.

AW: What’s great about running ultras and what type of runners take part in them? Are they a slightly different crowd to half marathoners and marathoners?

MS: Trail ultra marathons seem to attract a different type of runner who are often seeking a new experience, perhaps getting away from other problems, and by running an ultra proving to themselves that they can overcome these.

There is a feeling of great camaraderie in ultras. Even though they are competitive, people are more willing to help each other out.

AW: You now offer run coaching …

MS: I have been a full-time running coach for five years. I have studied sports science, I’m a qualified sports therapist and currently studying sports psychology.

I am very fortunate to coach a broad spectrum of abilities of runners from those embarking on their first ultra or half- marathon to British 100km champion Charlie Harpur.

AW: What would you say to someone considering their first ultra?

MS: Deciding to run an ultra will be life changing. It has the power to completely change you and your outlook on life, as it gives you the opportunity to explore the limits of your physical and mental abilities, making you realise that you can achieve what looks like the impossible.

It can give you the courage and strength that you can overcome the challenge of running an ultra and challenges in life.

CHIBA, Japan – With just two weeks remaining before U.S. Presidents Cup captain Tiger Woods rounds out this year’s team with his four captain’s picks, two of those potential selections made big statements Thursday at the Zozo Championship.

One of those players was Woods.

Playing his first event since having surgery on his left knee, Woods bounced back after three consecutive bogeys to start his day with nine birdies over his final 15 holes for a share of the lead.

Woods will name his captain’s picks following next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions, and he made it clear earlier this week that he hopes to be among that group.

“It made me more hopeful that I could do all of the above, play this week, play Hero and play [the Presidents Cup],” Woods said on Monday when asked about his knee surgery.

Alongside Woods atop the leaderboard at 6 under was Gary Woodland, who finished 10^th on the U.S. Presidents Cup points list. The U.S. Open champion kept the pressure on Woods to make him a pick with a T-3 finish at last week’s CJ Cup and added an opening-round 64 in Japan.

“Right now, I'm just trying to focus on the golf tournament, give myself a chance on Sunday,” said Woodland, who is not playing next week’s event in China. “[Woods] knows how much I want to be on that team, I've talked to him about it. So for me, I'll just go out and play well and everything will take care of itself.”

CHIBA, Japan – An approaching storm prompted officials at the Zozo Championship to adjust Round 2 tee times for players to start an hour earlier than scheduled, but it might not help.

Typhoon Bualoi is forecast to combine with a low-pressure system moving across central Japan Friday and create rain chances of 100 percent and winds predicted to gust to 30 mph. As much as 5 inches of rain is expected at Narashino Country Club.

Co-leader Tiger Woods is now scheduled to tee off at 7:40 p.m. ET Wednesday. Second-round tee times will now run from 6-8 p.m. ET.

"It's going to be sloppy and tough for us tomorrow morning before the storm gets in," Woods said, "and I think we're probably going to get little bit wet playing out there, and then it's going to be a grind on the weekend. There's going to be a lot of golf on the weekend for all of us, probably 54 holes for some of the guys on the weekend, so it's going to be a long couple of days."

The forecast improves dramatically Saturday, but the final round could be impacted by more rain with a 50-percent chance of storms.

Yuvraj Singh's career will resume with the Maratha Arabians in the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10, with the former India allrounder named the team's Indian icon player for the tournament.

"It is an exciting new format to be part of. I am looking forward to joining forces with some of the world's biggest names in this league and representing team Maratha Arabians," Yuvraj said in a press release. "It is going to be a thrilling time for the game of cricket. It's heartwarming to see leagues like T10 putting in so much hard work and offering such exciting format for sports enthusiasts."

Following his retirement from international cricket and the IPL in June this year, Yuvraj had left open the possibility of turning out in overseas franchise-based leagues.

"Yes, definitely, I want to go and play some T20 cricket. I think at this age, I can manage to play some fun cricket. I want to enjoy my life. It's been too stressful, just thinking about my international career, performing, and big tournaments like IPL… hopefully, I'll just enjoy myself," he had said. "Obviously I'll take the BCCI's permission to go out and play. For this year, or maybe next year, I don't know.

"I just want to have fun and enjoy time for myself. It's been a very long and hard journey, and I deserve that. I've had a word with the BCCI. I will have another word after this announcement."

Since then, the Man of the Tournament in India's winning campaign at the 2011 50-over World Cup has played for the Toronto Nationals in the Global T20 Canada league. The Nationals made the Eliminators there, and Yuvraj did well, scoring 153 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 145.71.

The Arabians, who made the semi-finals of the T10 tournament last season, played in Sharjah, had earlier announced the signing of Andy Flower as their head coach for the competition, which starts on November 15.

Dwayne Bravo will continue to lead the team, and they have also retained Sri Lanka T20I captain Lasith Malinga as well as the Afghanistan duo of Hazratullah Zazai and Najibullah Zadran. Australian batsman Chris Lynn has been signed up as the icon player of the franchise.

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros did something Wednesday night that for any other team would have registered as benign. Juan Soto, the 20-year-old wunderkind who hits cleanup for the Washington Nationals, was due up. With first base open and runners on second and third, the Astros intentionally walked him. For 173 games between the regular season and the playoffs, Houston had not issued a single intentional walk. But this was the top of the seventh inning in Game 2 of the World Series, when nothing made sense.

A guy who entered the night 1-for-23 in October crushed a go-ahead home run off one of the best pitchers of his generation. Three consecutive singles were feathered about the diamond, none leaving the bat fast enough to draw a speeding ticket on the Pickle Parkway. A sacrifice bunt, anachronistic though it is, was laid down. And -- hand on heart, this is true -- a team went 10 batters without striking out once.

The path to six runs can snake in endless permutations, yet this one -- the blitzkrieg that led the Nationals to a 12-3 blowout and a 2-0 series advantage as they return to Washington D.C. for three games -- was wild by any standard. Over the course of 33 pitches, the Nationals turned a tense, taut pitchers' duel between their Stephen Strasburg and the Astros' Justin Verlander into a blowout. It wasn't a deluge. It wasn't some surgical deconstruction of a lesser. It just sort of materialized, not a gift -- the Nationals don't need those -- but a perfectly timed stroke of fortune.

It began with a fastball, 93.5 mph, top of the strike zone, middle of the plate. Verlander, the Astros' co-ace, had cruised the previous five innings after a shaky first and was trying to maintain a 2-2 score. Kurt Suzuki, the Nationals' catcher, he of that .043 batting average, took the 100th pitch of Verlander's night out to left field. The score was no longer tied. One night after beating Gerrit Cole, the other half of Houston's seemingly unbeatable duo, the Nationals once again had silenced the crowd of nearly 44,000 at Minute Maid Park.

This has become customary. The Nationals last lost a game on Oct. 6. They had won four consecutive road playoff games heading into Wednesday. Improbable things happen in October, which means, sure, Kurt Suzuki -- a 36-year-old catcher in the twilight of his career -- can launch a home run off Justin Verlander.

"I can't remember the last time I barreled a ball up like that," Suzuki said. "It felt great. It felt like months ago -- probably was months ago. It felt great."

Fine. It can end there, with one odd event. But then Verlander issued a seven-pitch walk to Victor Robles. Now, Robles, a rookie center fielder, is a good player and should be great. He does many things well. But walking is not one of them. In 617 plate appearances this season, he walked 35 times. He was hit by a pitch almost as many times (25) as he walked. Until the seventh inning, he had come to the plate 22 times this postseason and not drawn a single walk.

"It's very difficult to hit after a solo home run. Especially in a big game," Nationals right fielder Adam Eaton said. "Sometimes you want to do too much, you want to hit another homer, that type of deal, keep things going. To walk there -- for me, that's the play of the game."

Robles' walk chased Verlander. In came Ryan Pressly, who took leadoff hitter Trea Turner to a full count before walking him. Eaton laid down a bunt to advance the runners, which was on brand -- he led the National League with nine sacrifices this season -- but completely foreign to 2019 baseball. Position players totaled 342 sacrifices all season -- one every seven or so games.

Nationals manager Dave Martinez called for the bunt because he wanted to scratch across an insurance run, especially with Strasburg finished after six innings and the Nationals' bullpen ill-equipped to register nine high-leverage outs. Anthony Rendon, their star third baseman, flew out to shallow center field, setting the stage for Astros manager AJ Hinch to call for the intentional walk. Hinch weighed Pressly's reverse platoon -- he held left-handed hitters this year to a .124/.165/.196 line during the regular season -- and chose to have him face Howie Kendrick.

"I felt it was our best chance to limit their scoring," Hinch said, "and instead it poured gasoline onto a fire that was already burning."

The embers were on first, second and third. Kendrick yanked a second-pitch slider from Pressly to the perfect place, right on the lip of third baseman Alex Bregman's glove. Bregman couldn't corral the ball, then missed when he stabbed at it with his throwing hand. There was the insurance. That, Rendon said, was the biggest at-bat of the inning. "If he gets out right there," he said, "we don't get those runs."

Actually, according to Robles, the biggest at-bat of the inning was the next one, which belonged to Asdrubal Cabrera. He joined the Nationals on Aug. 6, long past their dreadful start that nearly resigned them to sitting out the postseason. He started Game 2 with three consecutive strikeouts against Verlander. Against Pressly, he hung with a low-and-inside slider and guided it into center field for a single, with the ball leaving the bat at 75.7 mph. Two more runs scored. It was 6-2.

Hinch stayed with Pressly. He worked ahead of Ryan Zimmerman, then lost a breaking ball in the dirt that moved the runners up to second and third. Zimmerman stared at another ball to bring the count full before tapping a curveball down the third-base line. The exit velocity: 62.8 mph, paltry and meek. "You need the soft-hit ones to be outs," Verlander said.

They weren't in Game 2. Bregman barehanded the roller, attempted to throw to first and sailed the ball up the line. That allowed two runs to score, extended the deficit to 8-2 and brought the order all the way back to Suzuki, who faced reliever Josh James and grounded out to end the inning.

"Luck's gonna happen when it happens," Kendrick said.

There was luck. He isn't wrong. There also was skill. The Astros might have been the best contact-hitting team in the major leagues this season, but the Nationals weren't far behind. Their swinging-strike percentage ranked third. In those 33 pitches among Verlander, Pressly and James, Washington hitters swung and missed only three times -- a touch less than their 9.5% swinging-strike rate during the season and well under the 12.1% average across MLB. Three strikeout pitchers didn't register a single K.

"Any time you make contact is a good thing," Kendrick said, "because when you put the ball in play, anything can happen."

It wasn't just anything that happened. Everything happened. The improbable home run and the just-as-improbable walk and the obsolescent bunt and the unlikely intentional walk and the dink and the dunk and the bleeder. It was the wild, stupid, beautiful seventh inning in which nothing made sense, which was perfectly OK by the Washington Nationals.